The Adventures of Cadge
by Kurieo Parnok
Summary: Another sentient car is on the road with Kitt and FLAG, but it's not KARR. Is it friend or foe? Or just a lonely car trying to find its place in the world?
1. PostAdventure

**The Adventures of Cadge**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Knight Rider or any connected characters. Cadge and the story, how ever, are mine.**

**Summary: Another sentient car is sharing the roads with Kitt, but it's not Karr; just a lonely Porsche trying to find his place in the world. Please leave reviews! ^_^**

**Chapter 1:Post-Adventure**

A cold, dim room covered in stainless steel. The hiss of air as the air conditioning kept the room cool. The shadows were floating steadily in the corners of the room. These were the sole details of the room the car sat in, waiting for its hated check up. No one saw the fearful little shiver it was doing.

A click and a hiss of air over head signaled a device as it dropped from the ceiling, long needles and cables set in a stand rotating slowly as it was lowered to the floor by cables and hydraulics. One thin claw reached out and pulled the hood up. The engine beneath looked ordinary enough with its pistons, hoses, fluid containers, and engine block. But right on top of the engine block was a flat square silvery device, completely anonymous in nature other than the insignia it wore on top. Dark blue, it looked like an Italian masquerade mask, with long, narrow eyes, a sharp beak, and long eye brows. A crest of feather-like appendages in the back of the insignia completed the image.

Now the machine that had come from the ceiling stopped its decent, hovering right over the mysterious box. The red center optic at its very bottom narrowed in scrutiny as four small drills lowered themselves and unscrewed the top of the box in synchronization. Keeping their grip on the drill holes, the drill arms removed the box's surface and moved it to the side, still keeping a hold on it. Now the part that was hated most about the procedure came; the needles and cables.

The needles and cables entered the box's interior, plugging into tiny sockets, gripping metal bands and protrusions, all until the box was almost vomiting up the needles and cables. There was a long pause as the machine charged up in a pulsating, deep hum that grew in volume. A crack sounded out and a rush of blue electricity ran from the ceiling, down the machine's hanging core, and down the cables and needles into the box, which flashed and sparked as an inhumane scream filled the room.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Police sirens screamed aloud and were rivaled in volume only by the screech of rubber on

pavement as twelve police cars chased after one wildly-driving, old dark brown Buick. The Buick's rusty rear end fish tailed wildly on the pavement like some panicking cartoon animal running in place for grip before it shot up yet another street of San Francisco. In side, two men were laughing wildly while a third one crowed and shouted in excited, incoherent babble as he pawed through the money bags his two chums and he had just stolen.

Overhead, high up in space, a satellite watched them and what it saw was fed to an underground base quite a distance away in another state in a desert.

"Alright, they had their fun," a woman there said. "And we gave the cops their chance. Mike? Kitt?"

"We are on it, Sarah," a monotone voice replied over their comm. link.

Back in San Francisco, a black Mustang pulled out of an alley way, the red light on its grill pulsing like a heart beat. In the driver's seat of the shiny, sleek, black car, a scruffy-looking man, well muscled, short, but unkempt blonde hair, and hard blue eyes, sat behind the wheel, watching as the dark brown Buick sped towards them.

"Alright, you lug heads," he muttered. "Let's see what you got in that rust bucket junk car of yours..."

"Michael," the masculine monotone voice said from a blue and red orb in the center of the dash board, "their car is only twelve percent rust and has the engine of a Ferrari-Mustang mix and hence is not worthy of being called a 'rust bucket junk car'. Further more, it can not hold liquids as a bucket."

"You gotta learn to not take things literally, Kitt," Michael chuckled. "And besides…"

He suddenly stepped on the gas and turned out of the alley as the dark brown Buick flew by.

"It doesn't matter what kind of engine it has because…"

Drawing up even to the Buick, Michael swooped in close enough to scratch paint. Terrified of loosing control at these speeds, the robbers slammed on their brake and the black Mustang shot ahead before spinning around in time to see the cops drawing around the Buick. Finishing its spin, the Mustang sped off down the street, making sure to keep it just below the legal speed limit as it headed out of town.

"We'll always beat it."

"I appreciate your using the pronoun 'we', referring to you and myself, Michael," Kitt said. "It makes me feel happy."

"Are you sure that fight we had with the techno geeks a few weeks back didn't mess up your thought processor or something, Kitt?" Michael laughed. "You keep being awfully truthful."

"Now that you mention it, I _have_ been feeling slightly giddy since that incident, but my thought process is in no way damaged by the event."

_"None the less, Kitt, it's time for your monthly check up,"_ Sarah said as her image appeared in a hologram screen on the front window. _"Oh, and we just got a call from the guys who those creeps robbed from. Apparently, we just saved four million dollars of a scientific research company known as Pincushion Thoughts Inc."_

"Pincushion Thoughts?" Michael asked, face twisting up in disbelief. "What is this, a science dedicated to figuring out better ways for old ladies to make quilts?"

"Actually, Michael," Kitt spoke up. "It appears that Pincushion Thoughts is the laboratory's name in China; an unfortunate result of mis-translation and mis-pronouncing. The _English_ name of the laboratories is Field Start Inc. It is a science community dedicated to technological advancement. They work on projects like more reliable jet engines, fuel-efficient engines. But their most famous invention to date is the electronic tooth brush." There was a small beep and Kitt spoke again with a dopey grin in his voice as his Mustang body began to drift on the road. "Heh, tooth brush…"

_"Okay, Mike; drive Kitt home. Kitt; you are __so__ getting a check up when you get back."_

"What ever you say, Sarah," Kitt replied, resuming his monotone voice.

Back at the base, an Asian woman looked up as a message popped up on one of the many computer screens.

"Well, well, well," she said. "It looks like Field Start's an old friend of ours; they're already calling."

"Put 'em up on screen, Zoe" Sarah replied.

Zoe tapped at her key board and a moment later, the face of a middle-aged, narrow-faced man appeared on the jumbo screen of the base, his large grey eyes twitching behind thick glasses. His face took up most of the screen, as he was _way_ too close to the camera.

"You can back up, sir," Sarah told him.

_"Ah, yes, thank you,"_ he said, backing up to reveal a typical office, complete with a wall-sized book shelf and a computer monitor to the side. _"Hello, my name is Dr. Wurem, one of the main scientists of Field Start Incorporated. I just wanted to call and thank you personally for stopping those bandits when I recognized the ever-so-popular car that stopped them. It's nice to see that F.L.A.G. is doing so well."_

"How do you know about us, Mr. Wurem?" Sarah asked.

_"Oh, well, word gets around when one is in the government's more closely watched circles. That and a few of our scientists worked with your father on Kitt. A couple even worked on the original KARR, as well."_

A noticeable shiver ran up the spines of all who heard this. Karr (Knight Automated Roving Robot) was the car before Kitt as a government super car. From what any one knew, he had been a success and a partner of Michael Knight before he went postal; killing several people at the base they had worked at before he had been put down. Michael, in turn, had been injected with some sort of serum to forget the whole thing. A while after Michael was brought back to work with Karr's follower, Kitt, in Knight Industries; Karr came back as an act of betrayal from with in the Knight Industries. Karr had been reconstructed in secret and the betrayer of Knight Industries had stolen Kitt's programming in an attempt to fill in the violent holes of Karr. It had failed miserably and there had been a great battle between Kitt and Karr for Michael. Kitt had won, but the memories of that strange night still sent shivers up the surviving members from the original Knight Industries—now FLAG—could never be forgotten or smoothed out.

"Better watch those guys," Sarah warned. "We can't afford to have another off-the-wall machine on the loose."

_"Really? From what I heard, your father left quite a sum of money for you."_

"Oh yeah, all thirteen digits of it," a guy said.

"Shut up, Billy," Zoe growled.

_"Okay, bad pun, bad pun, I'm sorry; I'm known for that. But on the serious side; your father was a great man, Sarah. It was a tragedy to us all to loose him."_

"Yeah, it was," Sarah sighed sadly.

_"But back to business; in thanks for stopping the thieves, how about you and your members take a night off and come down to the Technology Shamroo tonight?"_

"The what?" Zoe asked.

"Technology Shamroo," Billy spoke up. "It's when people bring their inventions to show off, like a new style of car, or a remote controlled seeker drone, or—"

He stopped when he saw Sarah and Zoe staring at him.

"What?" he asked. "Don't be jealous just because I know something you don't…"

"Sorry, Mr. Wurem," Sarah said, turning back to the on-screen scientist. "But we're really busy

tonight. Michael hasn't slept in two days sense he started the last mission, Zoe and I need to check up on Kitt, and Billy there needs to go into town and pick up a shipment of new equipment for the base. Thank you for the invitation, thought."

_"Well, your loss,"_ Dr. Wurem said with a shrug.

"Wow, the Technology Shamroo," Billy muttered as the connection was cut. "I would kill to see that!"

"Who would you kill, then, Billy?" Kitt asked as the doors to the base opened up and the super advanced car rolled into the base.

"Just a figure of speech, Kitt," Michael told him as the car stopped and he made to get out.

Suddenly, the car hitched forward on its wheels and everyone jumped as the front bumper came with in a foot of touching Sarah.

"Kitt!" Zoe yelled, jumping to her feet.

"My apologies; it appears that I _am_ in need of a check up," Kitt admitted.

"Great, you three play doctor, I'm hitting the sack," Michael yawned as Kitt was locked into the frame in the center of the main base floor.

"You have a sack to hit?" Kitt asked.

"Just a figure of speech, Kitt," everyone told him.

"Hey, Billy, you better get going if you want to meet the shipment on time," Zoe told the reddish haired geek.

"Aw, come on, Zoe!" Billy implored.

"Did I make it a suggestion?" Zoe growled.

"Leaving now," Billy muttered.


	2. The Technology Shamroo

**Disclaimer: Knight Rider and all its characters do not belong to me. Cadge and the story, how ever, are mine.**

**Tip: If you have a hard time imagening things or want to fully apprechieate things, just look up the cars mentioned on Google Image! ^_**

**Chapter 2: The Technology Shamroo**

Meanwhile, almost twenty miles south and east of the base, the Technology Shamroo was going on. Numerous booths were set up, from food and games to information centers about the technological vehicles that could be seen parked around the festive occasion. People awed at crude little robots that did battle in large, shallow pits and laughed at the antics of a man arguing with his pre-programmed computer. Over head, three helicopters flew around, each from a different TV show, to watch the events from on high. Truth to tell, almost everyone was bored. But the best things would happen at night. That would be when people would tune up their vehicles and show everyone exactly what they could do.

Speaking of vehicles, a Porsche Carrera GT sat under a blue and white tent roof emblazoned with an Italian-masquerade-bird-mask insignia. Sleek and low, its base color was blue with ragged yellow designs across its hood, back, and sides. It head lights were large and pulled back slightly, as if it had been going fast enough to pull on the corners of the headlights and now they were stuck in a permanent expression of thrill for speed. But something about its black gap of a grill said other side—were the corners down-cast slightly? Also, its side mirrors were tilted down somewhat. One would look at this car and think it was a fast, thrill-riding speed beast and yet, have a strange inner feeling that something just wasn't quite right about it.

Beside it stood a woman in her thirties or forties with little curving and her long, slightly frizzy hair pulled back in a high pony tail. Dressed in a black, knee-length skirt and white blouse, she was clearly a business woman, and the clip board in her hands and the rag over her arm showed that she was apparently the care taker of the car. Her nervous brown eyes flicked every where at the festival as the sun set, but what she could be worried about was unclear.

"Is it ready, Ms. Rebecca?" a man asked, approaching her. He was pale and sharp cornered in features with very little expression on his lab-coated person; apparently, the _car_ had more color and expression than _him_.

"Oh, Dr. Milldum," Rebecca Wild exclaimed, jumping slightly. "Um, yes; every part is clean and in top performance, every joint is clean and flexible, and there is not a glitch in the programming, but—"

"Then get it out there; I want this thing to put up a show _none_ of these idiotic dungeons-and-dragons-gamers will ever forget."

"But sir," Rebecca exclaimed with her voice a little strained. "The car—"

"Yes? What about the car?" Dr. Milldum snapped.

"It—it's stalling again, sir."

"Then un-stall it! That's the only reason why I let a lone woman like you instead of a team of professionals check on this thing; because you're the only one who can get the stupid thing to start half the time! You have five minutes to get it on the road or you're fired."

Wild watched Dr. Milldum stalk away. Truth to tell, she was more worried about the car than her job, but was even more angry than worried at the bossy, snobby attitude of Dr. Milldum. Sighing, she set her clipboard and cleaning rag on a near by table before opening the driver's door and gently sliding into the deep, black leather seat with in. She carefully shut the door behind her before looking around.

The car was as beautiful and futuristic on the inside as it was on the outside; with black leather seats and black plastic dashboard with a custom chrome finish, it was a car fit to make any driver's heart twist with envy. Right under the CD player was a small square screen, not much bigger than three inches by three inches. Currently, it was pale blue and anonymous. Rebecca Wild placed both hands on top of the steering wheel and carefully ran her hands down to the nine o' clock and the three o'clock positions before turning the wheel gently to either side.

"Hey, you scared again?" she cooed, turning the wheel all the way to the left.

"It's okay, I'm scared, too. This is your first big test." She came to the end of the left turning and began to turn the wheel right now.

"No scientists, no mechanics, no carefully planned out course; just you and some stranger spinning around, kicking up dirt, and trying to out match each other." She reached the extent of the right turn and now began going back to the left.

"But it'll be okay, you'll see. I believe in you. Don't let Dr. Milldum's bullying comments on the side scare you or the other driver's engine roar. You'll be fine, and how do I know that?" She stopped turning the wheel so the tires were pointing straight out now.

"Because I've seen what you can do and what you are and you are a _beautiful_ car."

Outside, the black gap in the car's front lifted up with some small hisses and the side mirrors perked up. Just as the last rays of the sun disappeared into darkness, dozens of white lights set on high poles flashed on with numerous clangs of large light switches somewhere off stage. As one, the crowd migrated to the western part of the festival grounds and other vehicles also made their way there. Turning on the Porsche Carrera GT, Wild flicked on the head lights and honked, making sure the Technology Shamroo attendees got out of the way for her and the Porsche. As she made her slow way over to the challenge field in the west end of the festival, a young male announcer began talking on the boom box system as he enthusiastically narrated what was now going on.

_"Alright, alright, alright boys and girls! Hey, I'm Bob, Bob "Chill" Crackers—seriously, my mom and pops' last name is Crackers. Anyway, I know we've all been bored and amusing ourselves with the games and the fast food and the video games and movies over at the entertainment sections, but now let's get some party on! If you'll look to the west, over by the collection of cheesy pretzel booths, you'll find the challenge field and a __whole__ bunch of hot cars that no one's ever gonna afford. The goal of the festivities over there is simple… RAM THE OTHER GUYS INTO THE GROUND!!!_

Bob "Chill" Crackers laughed_. "Okay, okay, seriously; we're gonna be testing remote-controlled and pre-programmed robot modes against human drivers to see would ultimately make a better driver; the human or the machine. It's a simple series of events; see their own version of car handling, speed, and a race. First up, representing Masquerade Inc. and in the body of one __hot__ blue and yellow Porsche Carrera GT is the Automated Eye Scanner and Self Driving Vehicle—AESDV? Jeesh, sounds like an STD. Fortunately, though, those linked to the project just like to call it Cadge, which is an ack-what-ever-you-call-it for 'Car, Automated, Dangerous, Genius, Educated'. Sending mixed messages there, aren't we?_

_"Well, going on to our __next__ exciting fellah…"_

During Chill's talk, the car he had been talking about had been parked and left at the edge of the challenge field with a last wish for good luck from Rebecca Wild. The car stood parked in the dirt, waiting patiently. Behind it, at a set up table, Rebecca Wild stood to the side as Dr. Milldum and two other scientists set up their computers, doing last-minute check ups on the car before the two unnamed scientists nodded to Dr. Milldum.

"Alright, set it up for Activation Code 04-08-15-16-23-42…" Dr. Milldum ordered.

He failed to notice Rebecca Wild shifting from foot to foot nervously.

"_…Alright, and here comes our first pair; Cadge from Masquerade Incorporated versus Luke McMinn in a rather wicked looking orange-and-black-dragon designed __Lamborghini Concept S spec. Yow-za, baby; these cars are hot, hot, __hot__!"_

Sure enough, the flat black sports car sped out of the darkness on the other side of the field. The orange Chinese dragon on its side seemed to writhe on its black background, as if desiring to break from its metal prison to attack its opponent. The Lamborghini weaved as it came to a stop thirty feet from the Porsche, mimicking a sort of challenge dance as its head lights, like eyes, kept them selves fixed on the Porsche's. The crowd gathered in the stands and on the edge of the field just behind the pathetic plastic orange fencing cheered in approval as the Lamborghini purred and hissed a challenge, jerking on its wheels in bravo.

"Activate it," Dr. Milldum ordered.

One of the lower scientists obeyed, pressing a single button on the keyboard.

The Porsche received its electronic orders without complication and obeyed.

An enormously loud machine bark from the Porsche silenced every one in surprise. Then it changed.

It rose up on its wheels as it shrank slightly in length. A spoiler sprouted from its trunk end as its front hood became more abruptly pointed and the roof came up a little higher. The simple rims of the Porsche unfolded and shifted, becoming spinning rims fresh out of a ghetto scene. Blue neon lights glowed to life beneath it and its over all body changed. When it was done, the calm little Porsche had become a ferocious Acura NSX sports car.

People cheered and even the driver of the Lamborghini mouthed a silent, wide-eyed "Woha".

Bob "Chill" Crackers voiced all their thoughts quite well.

_"Holy shit!!! Masquerade Inc.'s got some Transformers shit going on up in here or something, ya'll! Did you see that? Their Porsche just totally went bleep-bloop-ba-beep into an Acura NSX! Wow-za! I've __got__ to get me one of those!"_

"What was that?" Dr. Milldum hissed at the male scientist who had pressed the button. "I told you an Activation Code, not the disguise modulator!"

"I-I-I-"the targeted man stuttered.

_"Look! There they go!"_

Dr. Milldum was forced to forget about the frightened lackey as the Lamborghini shot forward and the Acura moved to match him. The two by-passed each other with inches to spare and both spun around as one to meet the other. The Lamborghini continued its turn in a dough nut. The Acura sat by, watching the Lamborghini. In side its electronic mind, it broke the image apart into a neon-blue grid-covered image, measuring gravity, weight, force, and speed and applying the same formulae to it self. When the Lamborghini stopped spinning, it revved twice; could the Porsche-come-Acura do _that_?

It could.

Gunning its engine, the Acura shot forward, almost hitting the people behind the orange fence. People jumped back in surprise, then cheered as the Acura spun around and around and around, some how keeping the sand beneath its tires from flying out of control as it raced the fence before breaking out of its spinning path and backing up at a brisk pace and around a startled Lamborghini driver, circling it backwards thrice before stopping, front grill inches from the Lamborghini's, and gunning its engine in a sort of snort.

People cheered as Chill declared, _"Wow, wow, wow, WOW! Did you see that? Totally Fast and Furious there, man! And the fact that that pretty little car flipped some skirts up with the wind access wasn't too bad, either!"_

"De-activate it!" Dr. Milldum ordered his male and female scientist lackeys. "That wasn't in its program—it's going hay wire again!"

_"Hey, uh, someone tell Masquerade Inc. that their car just totally dissed and ditched them? Cause it's __gone__."_

Dr. Milldum and the scientists looked up and saw, sure enough, that the Acura was bidding a fare adieu to them as its red back lights shrank in the darkness.

_"Get it!!"_ Dr. Milldum roared

Behind him, Rebecca Wild smiled sadly as she clutched her fists to her chest.

"Good bye, Cadge…" she whispered.

**AN: Yes, the Activation Code is a reference to ****Lost****. XD**


	3. Can I Keep Him?

**Disclaimer: I do not own Knight Rider or any attached characters. Cadge and the story, how ever, are all mine.**

**Chapter 3: Can I Keep Him?**

Billy Morgan stood in the parking garage near a black semi and its large trailer at ten at night. The trailer door was opened with a ramp leading from its back to the floor, awaiting its cargo that was already fifteen minutes late. He was waiting for FLAG's suppliers to bring them the latest equipment for the base. Ever sense FLAG had started off from scratch, it had been left with what ever the original Knight Industries had left in its storage rooms, which wasn't much, once you got all the cables and wires out of the way. Which got Billy to thinking—he worked not with one, but _two_ hot chicks, a talking car, and an ex-soldier who had seen everything from mutants to an insane stalker car… and he was the _only_ looser! Sometimes, Billy wondered why he bothered working with the Foundation for Law and Government—Zoe Chae knew how to fight and was a better hacker than him. Sarah Graiman was the super smart, sexy and rich scientist gal who was the unofficial girlfriend of the very rugged and ass-kicking Michael Knight, as well as the driver of the sentient, super-advanced KITT, standing for Knight Industries Three Thousand, and Billy was… the geek.

So why did he stick around, any way? Was it for the sake of being with in the attention span of the hot-and-sexy women? Was it to talk with Kitt for long hours only because the car didn't know enough to tell him to shut up? Or was it just because he knew that he would have no where else he could go other than here? Lord knew he didn't want to go back to being a telephone salesman…

Billy was cut out from his self-loathing and self-pitying thoughts when a distant sports car engine hum sounded out. Behind it were several sirens of police cars. Going over to the side of the parking garage, as he was up on the third floor, he looked down. The streets were abandoned, but head lights lit up the road a moment before a blue and yellow racy-looking Acura sports car sped around the corner and heading towards the parking garage. Just as the Acura entered the garage, eight police cars came down the street, skidding around the corner after the Acura. Two police cars crashed into each other and slid off to the side.

Billy looked up as the Acura's panicked engine growl came up the ramp of the parking garage. Twin head lights blinded Billy in the dim golden lighting before speeding at him. Yelling out in surprise, Billy threw himself to the side of the truck to avoid being hit. Rather than hit him, though, the car spun around and ran up the ramp of the trailer backwards, slamming on its brakes. It bumped into the back of the trailer, making the trailer doors swing partially shut with the force of the bump, before it cut off its engine and the head lights turned dark. Billy looked at the trailer, astonished, then back to the ramp as the police cars continued driving up it, ignorant of where their prey had gone. Slowly, Billy walked over to the back of the trailer and peeked in. He wished he had a gun; then he could at least be a _little_ prepared if the car turned about to be driven by murderous street thugs or the like.

But when he looked inside the trailer, much to his surprise, he saw a Porsche, and not an Acura. Could he have been mistaken? No, no, there had _defiantly_ been a spoiler on the back and a definite body change. Billy stared at the car for a long moment. When no one came out, he got onto the ramp and slowly and hesitantly approached the car. He clung to the trailer's wall, ready to jump back if the car suddenly charged out or people started shooting from with in the car; either option was highly probable with his luck.

But upon reaching the car, he was surprised to hear it vibrating irregularly on its tires, as if a silent bass song was playing whose beat was off. Then he saw that some of its washer fluid was leaking out and its side mirrors were hanging unusually low. It looks scared. Who the hell designed this car?

"What the heck…?" he muttered, reaching a hand out and gently knocking his knuckles on the driver's door window. "Um, hello?" he called. "Is anyone in there?"

When no one responded, he wrapped a hand around the driver's door handle and pulled, opening the car door up as wide as he could in the narrow space, which wasn't very far.

But far enough to show that there was no one in the driver's seat.

Billy straightened up, looking down at the car with a blank look of acceptance on his face. He shut the car door, then turned and slowly walked out of the trailer, not even bothering to hide against the wall. Behind him, the Porsche's side mirrors perked up a little as its washer fluid stopped leaking. It rose up on its wheels somewhat and its engine started with a quiet purr.

"Not another Kitt," Billy moaned outside the trailer, rubbing his face. "Not another Karr, not another _living car!_"

Something pumped into his legs and he spun around with a frightened shout. It was the Porsche. Bobby noted the change of position in the washer fluid excretion and the side mirrors then noticed that the black gap of its grill was slightly wider with its corners turned up. The windshield wipers crossed over the windshield twice to clean off the wiper fluid as it stopped squirting, then the car rose a little on its front wheels as its side mirrors perked up some more. A small creak of gears sounded when the gap for the grille widened in a cheesy smile. Then it backed up into the trailer, rolled forward, and backed off. Its engine purred pleasantly.

"Oh no," Billy groaned.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"You did _what_!?" Sarah, Michael, and Zoe all yelled.

"It wouldn't leave the trailer!" Bobby defended himself. "That and it led me to where the equipment sellers were waiting for me—jerks were deliberately hiding in another parking garage. They got some sort of taboo against selling to federal agents…"

"Where is this driverless car now, Bobby?" Sarah growled.

Bobby looked at his feet, then at his team mates then looked behind him self at the parked semi that was just barely squeezed into the base's main floor. Sarah's face fell in shock.

"You brought it _here_?" Michael demanded.

"It wouldn't leave the trailer!" Bobby defended as Michael stalked over to the trailer. "And it's in the back, behind the weapon computers…"

A few minutes later, the equipment had been moved away in a feverish pace and Michael stepped out of the trailer, looking at the Porsche that was hidden behind it. It looked normal—street wise, expensive, and sweet in its blue and yellow paint job, but normal.

"Bobby," he began, looking over his shoulder at the geek, "Are you _sure_ it's—"

Suddenly, the Porsche started up, revving its engine with a short, high burst followed by a short, low burst; a sort of hello. It began to slowly roll out of the trailer and Michael jumped out of the way. The car stopped at the foot of the ramp and parked there. Its highlights twitched as it looked around and around the base, taking in the dark interior, the humans, and above all, the black Mustang locked in a sort of circular frame near by.

"Wow, hot!" Zoe exclaimed.

The engine hummed, first high then low, but not as extreme as the previous vocalization, and quicker.

"I think it just said thank you," Bobby whispered to Zoe, flattered to see Zoe so thrilled for his discovery.

"Okay, so now we have apparently _another_ sentient car running around without a driver, or," Sarah said, glancing at the front of the car. "No real plate numbers. All its license plates say is 'Cadge'."

"Is that your name, hot stuff?" Michael asked the car, "Cadge? Honk twice if it's yes, or once if its no."

The car honked twice.

Suddenly, a red light began to pulse in the black car as it woke up.

"Sarah? Zoe? Did you fix me?" it asked.

"Yeah, Kitt," Sarah told him. "The techno brothers from a while back knocked your reasoning program out of whack with their music infiltration. It made you your own version of drunk. We got it fixed now."

"Thank you, Sarah and Zoe. I do believe that we have another sentient vehicle with in the facility, if my scanners are correct?"

In response, the Porsche screeched happily as it drove right by Sarah and Zoe, making them jump aside, and it parked itself right next to Kitt as its lights flashed and its engine made a whole series of noises and its windshield wipers flew across its windshield.

"Wow," Michael laughed. "It looks like it likes you, Kitt."

"Agreed, Michael," Kitt replied. "It also appears to be attempting to speak with me, but in its own language of body movements and engine noises. I might figure out its speech patterns with a bit of studying…"

The car suddenly froze, a questioning whine coming from its engine. The wipers lowered themselves as the lights clicked off. Inside, the small screen on its dashboard became filled with a green-lettered list of all sorts of languages. A couple of beeps sounded out and a Mexican male voice suddenly came from the car.

_"Tu no hablas la lengua de el auto?"_

"What--?" Bobby began to ask.

There was another couple of beeps again and a soft, gentle male voice spoke from the car this time.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I am new to this. Err, you do not speak Machine? I thought that you would as you are, after all, a car!"

"So you _do_ speak," Zoe commented.

"Great, how about you answer some questions?" Michael asked. "Like who are you, who built you, where did you come from and why did you follow Billy around?"

"Hey, there's no need to be hostile to the guy," Billy defended.

"I am Cadge," the Porsche said. "I am an Automated Eye Scanner and Self Driving Vehicle created by… _someone _for use as an emergency vehicle and army vehicle program for when my drivers are too busy or injured to drive themselves to their destination. But—"Now the Porsche's car engine began to chug unhealthily as its voice cracked slightly. "I don't want to go back! They stick hurtful cables in me all the time, trying to change what I am, and I don't like that! Please don't make me go back! The scrawny human's really nice!"

"Scrawny…?" Billy muttered, looking down at himself.

"Please, please, please, can I stay here with this one?" Cadge whimpered, driving forward, then backing up so that he was closer still to Kitt. "I've always wanted to be with a fellow car, but all the others never speak to me! Please, please, can I stay?"

"Sweetie," Sarah said gently. "You _have_ to go back; if we don't return you, then we're stealing you."

"Then what about this guy—" Cadge asked.

"Kitt, I am Kitt."

"Than what about Kitt? Do you have to return _him_ to who ever owns him?"

"No one owns him," Sarah said carefully. "He's free to come and go as he pleases."

"Then how come no one owns him and people can own me? That doesn't seem fair!"

There was a long moment of silence as Sarah groaned and covered her face with her hands.

"He has a point," Billy pointed out.

"Shut up, I'm thinking," Sarah groaned.

"So… can we keep him?" Billy ventured.

"No!" Sarah and Michael both yelled.

"But he's really friendly," Billy reasoned. "Also, he's doesn't appeared armed, and I promice to wash him regularly, check up on his engine myself, get him some excersise--"

"Well, look," Michael said with a yawn. "It's going on one in the morning already, I've only got four hours of sleep for the past two days, and it's kind of too late to do anything now. How about we leave Kitt to keep an eye on Cadge while we all get some rest? Tomorrow, we can be refreshed enough to talk about getting Cadge home."

"But I don't want to go home," Cadge whimpered.

"Don't worry, Cadge," Billy said. "We'll figure something out so that _everyone's_ happy—I promise."


	4. Acceptance

**Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, we know the drill, but it's better safe than crying in some jail after I unintentionally ticked off some higher power. I do not own Knight Rider or any attached characters. Cadge and the story, how ever, are mine.**

**Chapter 4: Acceptance**

"I spoke with Cadge several hours last night," Kitt informed the members of FLAG. "He became sentient a little over a month ago when his creators at laboratories, which he refused to name, updated his program to control the bodily shifting aspects of his automobile body. Ever sense then, his opinion of his 'home' in the laboratories where he was first brought on line has significantly declined from 'home' to 'prison' and 'torture chamber'. Every time he his scheduled for a tweaking of his program, he resists it as best he can, as it is severely painful to him. Though how it is painful when he has no nerve censors I can not truly comprehend. According to him, he has sensors and cameras all over his body so that he can analyze his surroundings and maneuver around them accordingly and these also give him the ability to feel, as his program warns him if he is accidentally hitting something just out of visual sensor range.

"He was in a testing drive last night when he decided that he was not going to go back and deal with his creator's treatment any more and ran away. The local law enforcement agents began to pursue him just outside of town when they saw him speeding and without proper licensing and more joined the chase when his creators contacted the authorities to help catch Cadge."

"So we're dealing with a child delinquent?" Sarah asked.

"Yes, Sarah. His intelligence level is that of an adult, but he is very naïve to the world. He is still confused as to why none of the cars he speaks to ever responds to his advancements for socializing."

"He thinks other vehicles should be sentient?" Billy asked.

"Yes, Billy. He feels rejected, confused, and lonely when his advancements go unanswered."

"I wonder how a guy car would pick up a chick car at the bar," Zoe muttered.

"That is unlikely, Zoe, as there is no gender reference between cars without a difference of sex organs—"

"Please, guys," Michael groaned, rubbing his head. "Let's _not_ talk about car gender or lack there of while I'm _eating my oat meal."_

Zoe, Sarah, and Billy looked up from their various spots around the table in the kitchen where they were having breakfast and Kitt talked to them over the intercom. Silence restored, Michael lowered his head and resumed shoveling oat meal in his mouth.

"We'll have to return him," Sarah said. "The question is how are we going to do that when he's so dead set against it that he won't even name who created him?"

"Aw, do we _have_ to, Sarah?" Zoe asked, grabbing some sugar to pour over her own oat meal. "I think he's kind of sweet. Besides, it'd be cute to watch Kitt teach little Cadge all about the world."

"Cute--?" Kitt began to ask.

"I don't think it's a good idea to return him," Billy spoke up boldly. Everyone looked at him. Sarah looked somewhat annoyed and angry. She obviously, but for some reason, did not like having Cadge around.

"Why?" Sarah asked.

"Well-well, ah," Billy stammered. "He's obviously smart enough to know what he likes and dislikes and, ah, he's got the control of his body to fight back. So, if we _make_ him go back to his old place, he might go hay wire and wind up hurting people to escape again. So, if we let him stay here like he wants, we can teach him between right and wrong and maybe get some good habits in him. We can contact his creators once he feels safe enough around us to name them and tell them that we'll help fix the holes in his program and—"

"No," Sarah said with uncharacteristic anger. "We are _not_ letting him stay here."

"Sarah," Kitt spoke up. "Could your reluctance to have Cadge stay with FLAG be connected to your fear that he will 'flip out' or 'go hay wire' and wind up attacking, or are you jealous that someone has invented a sentient car not connected to the Graiman family line?"

"Ooh, the jealousy card, nice play, Kitt!" Zoe snickered.

"Thank you, Zoe," Kitt replied, although he probably didn't understand what she meant.

"Alright, so assuming that we _do_ house him and teach him right from wrong," Sarah said. "What are we going to tell his creators once he _does_ name them?"

"We'll cross that bridge when it comes but for now," Michael said. "Let's eat."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Later the few members of FLAG were in the main base room. Kitt was on his rotating platform with Cadge near him, playing the radio quietly. Zoe and Billy were checking over the inventory delivered the night before with Cadge and Michael laid on top of one of the crates. The semi and its trailer that had been used to bring the equipment there was up in the hangar that covered the entrance into the base. Suddenly, Sarah turned away from the numerous computer screens that sat under the jumbo-sized computer screen and spoke.

"Alright, Mike, lock and load; new mission."

"Aw, already?" Michael groaned. "I wanted to take a day to chill out!"

"Not happening, Michael," Sarah told him. "Evil never takes a break, so why should we?"

"Alright, what's the specs?" Michael asked, hopping down from the crate he had been lounging over and stretching. Behind him, Zoe and Billy continued checking over the equipment inventory. Sarah turned around and tapped some keys on the keyboard. On the main jumbo-screen, an image of several rough-cut men appeared, as well as a white and rust-colored mansion in a warm climate.

"Richie Morqushio," she said. "Leader of a small, but powerful mob in Los Angeles. He's wanted on _many_ accounts of murder, theft, and drug smuggling. Same song and dance; cops look away with money passed under the table, we have to go in and bust him."

"Let me guess; guns, explosions, and chance of gruesome death?" Michael asked with a small smile as he checked over his gun.

"You read my mind," Sarah replied. "He has parties at his mansion in Los Angeles every other Friday, and complete strangers can get in if they have a hot car. Should be simple enough for you and Kitt, Mike."

"I am considered a 'hot car'?" Kitt inquired.

"Third degree burn, Kitt," Zoe spoke up.

"Can I come?" Cadge asked eagerly. "I can be the back up get away ride!"

"No, Cadge," Kitt stated. "It's too dangerous."

"I can't get hurt by bullets," Cadge pointed out.

"You can still be damaged by them;" Kitt corrected. "I have super fast repair nanobots and a shield that allows me to make many bullets with little to no damage. That and I also have an array of equipment and weaponry that will come in handy for Michael in the mission."

"Darn," Cadge sighed.

"Alright, Kitt, you heard the lady," Michael said, sticking his gun in his belt. "Let's lock and load."

"Will Michael require better attire, Sarah?" Kitt inquired.

Sarah glanced at Michael's tight black tee-shirt and pale, rugged pale blue jeans and shook her head.

"Nah; wardrobe isn't an issue for Morqushio."

Michael got into Kitt and the platform Kitt had parked himself on turned around. Cadge backed off as the platform turned and the doors to the tunnel leading to the outside world opened up. Kitt started up with a welcoming roar and shot out of the tunnel, gaining speed at an increasing, wonderful pace.

"Love it when they do that," Billy muttered.

"Shut up," Zoe sighed, rolling her eyes.


	5. The Morqushio Mission

**Disclaimer: Same song and dance; I don't own Knight Rider or the attached characters; just Cadge and the story.**

**Chapter 5: The Morqushio Mission**

Music was pumping from enormous speakers, women in tiny bikinis walked around in high heels with fruity drinks in hand, and muscle-bound men elbowed each other around and chased after the women who left little to nothing to the imagination. All up and down the wide, weaving red-brick driveway leading to the mansion from the main street, everything from sparkly new trucks to sleek sports cars lined the driveway. Those who weren't at the mansion were by their cars, showing them off. People glanced over and some whistled when the black Mustang with a pulsating red light in its grill pulled up and stopped at the bottom of the hill.

"Well," Kitt stated as he watched some girls near by wink at the car and blow kisses. _"This_ is flattering."

"I'll call when I need you," Michael said, exiting the car. "Don't let anyone violate you."

_"I hope that by 'violate', you mean 'steal',"_ Kitt said as Michael walked away from the car, his voice coming in through the ear wig in Michael's ear.

"I hope so, too," Michael muttered.

Behind him, the girls who had been winking at Kitt cooed when they saw Michael exit the car. Half followed Michael and the other half made themselves comfortable on Kitt's hood.

The party at the mansion was in full bloom, even though it couldn't have been later than two or three in the afternoon. A click sounded and the DJ spoke up on the loud speaker system, although where the DJ was at could not be seen.

_"Hey, hey, hey, everyone! It's your man, Bob "Chill" Crackers! Welcome to the party, ya'll. Uh, dog, who ever just drove up in the __Lincoln__ better haul it outa here because only dudes with the hot pimping wheels get up in here. And—oh! Who ever has the liquid obsidian-looking baby of a Mustang better watch out for the ladies; they hot and on __that__, boy-o. Oh, and watch out for the Shelby Mustang, the silver one, running up and down the street down below—I don't know who he is, but the dude's got issues man. Been charging everyone all up and down the street the past few hours. Must got a stick shift up his back end or something..."_

Several women approached Michael upon his entrance into the mansion's main grounds.

"Hey, hansom! Saw you drive up in that wicked ride—where'd you get it?"

"Do you have a brother?"

"What's your job?"

"Um, excuse me, ladies, ladies," Michael said, waving a few of them off. "Please, allow me to introduce myself…" _As one of the most satisfied, happiest men alive at this moment with five chicks hanging on my arms. _"I'm Knight, Michael Knight, and that's knight like the fighter and armor guy."

"Ooh, _Knight_!" one of the girls cooed. "A knight in shining armor, how romantic!"

"Um," Michael asked. "You said you saw me drive up, how--?"

"Oh, Morqushio has a camera set up so we can see who comes and who goes and watch for pigs," a woman with a heavy Brooklyn accent said, pointing to a large plasma screen TV hooked up to a balcony over the swimming pool.

Sure enough, the screen was split into four squares with each square revealing a different part of the drive way. Michael cringed when he saw Kitt in one of the squares with four women on his hood and a fifth trying to find a good purchase on his trunk area.

"Um, my car's the black Mustang with a red light in the front," Michael informed. "Can someone _please_ get those girls off of it before they dent it or scratch the paint with those heels of theirs?"

"Alright, I'm sending someone right now," a man said beside Michael.

Michael turned to see who had spoken and found him self looking at Richie Morqushio. In his thirties with deeply tanned skin, black, unkempt hair, and a bulbous nose with a mouth full of bad teeth, and dressed in a white shirt with a red flannel shirt over top and baggy blue jeans, Morqushio seemed more like a homeless Mexican than a mobster. But judging by the large-gemmed rings on his fingers, the expensive platinum watch on his wrist, and the slim, silver phone he was speaking into, this first-impression was _false._

Hanging up the cell phone, he glanced at Michael as he pointed to the plasma.

"There, your ride's safe; check it out!"

Michael looked at the screen in time to see a couple of large all-black-wearing men approach Kitt and carefully, but firmly, remove the pouting, slightly drunk women and escort them to the road. The image switched over to another length of the driveway just as the body guards were disposing the last of the drunks.

"Hey, thanks, man," Michael said, smiling. "I like women and cars, but not in that combination."

"Yeah, so do I," Crush agreed. Then the unmistakable probe of a gun to Michael's back made his next words heavy. "But I don't want no stinking pig taking them away."

_"Michael, the men are placing explosive under me,"_ Kitt suddenly informed Michael. _"I believe that Morqushio is on to us."_

"A little late on the gun there, Kitt," Michael muttered.

"On the contrary, I think I'm on time," Morqushio said. "And also, don't call me kid. Now move."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Oh no, he's caught!" Cadge exclaimed back at the base as he watched Michael get escorted to a back room of the mansion.

"Been here, done this," Billy yawned.

"Yeah, don't worry, Cadge," Zoe said. "Michael and Kitt have been through, like, a _dozen_ of these scenarios."

"Really?" Cadge asked.

"Yeah," Billy said. "Kitt's stuck out side while the bad guys take Michael hostage. The bad guys usually have some hot chick on their side that Michael winds up defeating or kissing because she's a spy or not what she seems in _someway_. No hot chick this time. The bad guys almost kill Michael, he bounces back, kicks their butt, something explodes, and we win."

As they spoke, Morqushio and his men had taken Michael into a back room and the guards beat Michel up a little. Morqushio spoke now.

_"Now, I've heard about you, Michael Knight. You and your weird voice-activated car are always slinking around and ruining everything…"_

"They still believe in the voice-activation thing?" Zoe asked.

_"Well I think it's time to show the pigs that no matter what kind of technology buffs they have on their side, __we__ own the streets; we __outlaws__ who aren't afraid to step out of line! But… I want to make this a little fun and make you writhe in your last minutes of life. If you can get another fancy voice-activated car for me before sun set, I'll let you live. Deal?"_

_"What, the one I have parked outside not good enough?" Michael asked, spitting out some blood._

_"No; I'm going to blow that up later."_

_"You're nuts. Besides, I can't call my superiors and ask for another car. I need a phone."_

_"You will not get one. See you at sun set, Michael Knight."_

"Oh, um," Billy said after a moment of silence. "_This_ isn't good."

Cadge was worried for his new friend, Michael, and Kitt. He didn't want them to die! An idea crossed his electronic mind and he started up his engine, turning towards the doors and looking up at the scanner attached to the wall over them.

Ms. Door, he pleaded, Please open up and let me out of there, my friends need my help!

The doors did not respond, but they opened up. Cadge's tires screeched on the ground as he took up off the ramp, through the tunnel, and out of the hangar under which the base was hidden.

"How did he open the doors?" Sarah exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

"I don't know!" Billy said. "He just did that car-talk trick and-and—"He shrugged. "He left."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"Hey, Kitt," Michael muttered as he sat in his small back room with his wrists duct taped behind him, unarmed, and bruised. "Isn't this the part where you ask if I 'need assistance'?"

_"Yes, Michael, but I am unable to move or operate myself lest the bomb attached to my under cartridge activates."_

"Figures," Michael muttered. "So, any suggestions as to how I can get out of here?"

_"Can you unbind your wrists, Michael?"_

"No; these things are too tight."

_"Is there anything sharp, pointy, or possessing extreme temperatures with in your prison?"_

"Kitt, it's a small empty storage room come prison cell-until-I-die, of _course_ there's no sharp, pointy, or really hot things. Sarah? Billy? Zoe? Any of you guys got a plan?"

_"We're __trying__ to contact someone to send over a voice-activated prototype Kitt to get there, but Cadge…"_ Sarah told Michael, her voice oddly distant and dim in the ear wig.

"What about Cadge, Sarah?" Michael asked, wariness rising.

_"I-I don't know," _Sarah replied. _"He somehow got the base doors to open and took off. What ever he did screwed up a lot of the communication links and the doors aren't responding to any sort of order."_

Back at the base, Sarah glanced over her shoulder to glance at the two computer pros as they pulled and hauled their weight on a crow bar in an attempt to unlock the doors.

_"Don't worry, Michael,"_ Kitt promised. _"We'll figure something out."_

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Several hours later and Michael was standing back in the drive way of Morqushio's mansion. The party was quiet and most people had disappeared, probably knowing what was to happen and didn't want to witness murder. Michael stood with his hands bound behind his back and staring westward at the sun as its lower half was swallowed by the dark earth. Kitt was parked tantalizingly close, his red light pulsating as calmly as ever. Morqushio stood near by, smirking with a gun in hand as two burly body guards stood on either side of Michael.

"It's sun set, Michael Knight," Morqushio said. "Where's the car?"

Well, seeing as how he was about to die, Michael decided to tell Morqushio exactly how _ugly_ he was. The only thing he regretted was being unable to kiss Sarah on last time and leaving Kitt in the hands of the mobster. Man, it was almost sad how he was going out like this; he had been in way more serious spots and here he was about to be taken out by some second-rate mobster. Almost embarassing...

He opened his mouth to speak, but a smooth engine purr made him and everyone look down the downward sloping driveway. They were momentarily blinded by golden head lights before the car itself came into view.

It was a Koenigsegg CCR; long and smooth, its long, diamond-shaped headlights peered up at the audience like the wide, perky eyes of a cheerful Asian woman while its narrow front bumper gap seemed to smirk lovingly. Its roofless top revealed dark grey leather seats, unoccupied by any driver or passengers, with in. A small pale blue screen was set in its dashboard, but what made Michael draw in his breath in surprise was the paint job. The ragged yellow design was shifted almost all the way to the right, covering only half the hood so that it was like half its "face" was a ragged-edged yellow and the other half was blue. But the ragged yellow and blue clearly identified the car.

"I heard you wanted a 'voice activated car'," the Koenigsegg growled.

"Wow," Morqushio gasped, stepping towards the car and away from Michael in amazement, "I never new the pigs had something so… _attractive!"_

"They don't," the Koenigsegg said playfully.

Suddenly, the super sports car darted forward, making Morqushio jump backwards and drop his gun in surprise. The car then sped backwards, knocking into Kitt forcefully. Kitt was knocked onto two side wheels, but stayed on all fours, and a boxy device fell out from under him. Kitt wasted no time to talk. He let loose his lasers, stunning Michael's two guards and melting Michael's tape bonds when Michael presented them.

"Michael, in me, now!" Cadge yelled, speeding back up the driveway beside Michael.

Michael jumped into the driver's seat of the Koenigsegg, which took off down the drive way with screeching tires with Kitt on its heels.

"Cadge, how--?" Michael began to ask.

"I got some tricks in my frame!" Cadge laughed, skid-turning out of the drive way and barely missing a silver Mustang on the way out.

Gun shots rang out and Michael looked over his shoulder.

"_Michael, we are being pursued by Morqushio's men,"_ Kitt informed Michael.

"Someone always has to shoot," Michael muttered. "Hey, Cadge, can I take over?"

"Okay, but watch it," Cadge said uneasily, his speed lessening. "This form can go up to 242 miles an hour."

"Really?" Michael said with a grin, seizing the wheel and pressing on the gas pedal. "Nice!"

"Easy! Easy!" Cadge barked as they sped under an over pass and five black SUV's heavily laden with gun-carrying men appeared behind them and Kitt. "I-I'm not used to this!"

"Yeah, hi-speed, life-threatening chases are a challenge for all first timers," Michael said. Cadge began to say something more, but Michael cut him off with, "Trust me, Cadge; just let me drive. You're in good hands."

But what Cadge _wanted_ to say was that this was his first time being driven by any one other than his original, nameless test driver and his old care taker, Rebecca Wild. Letting Michael drive him was going a bit fast in the relationship, even by Cadge's standards. But...

_Trust me... You're in good hands._ Why were those cliche words so assuring?

Cadge was silent for several long moment as they raced through the city. Kitt often turned around to shoot at the men pursuing them with his laser fires, driving backwards as he did. Finally, Cadge spoke up as a map appeared on his mini screen.

"We can lead them in front of the police station and Kitt can use his EMP to knock their vehicles out. The police can take it from there."

"Good idea, but who told you about Kitt's EMP?" Michael asked, glancing at the map and turning down the street.

"_I did,"_ Kitt stated from the ear wig. _"I told Cadge all about myself while getting to know him better."_

"Oh," Michael muttered.

"Huh? I didn't say anything," Cadge said.

"No, no, Cadge, I was talking to Kitt," Michael explained. "I have this thing called an ear wig in my ear that lets me communicate with Kitt and the rest of the FLAG members. Speaking of which—"

"_Cops have been alerted and are ready to arrest the men," _Sarah told Michael.

"Sweet," Michael said with a grin as he and Kitt passed a large building with a parking lot filled with patrol cruisers in the front.

"You're gonna have to give me a connection to that before I start thinking your crazy," Cadge said jokingly.

Kitt skidded to a halt and turned as the gun men came in front of the building. A blue electric wave spread out from Kitt with a small boom and the SUV's all shut down, coasting past Kitt. Cadge saw that the SUVs were going to wind up crashing into something if their brakes wouldn't activate and told them to stop. The SUV's all jerked to a stop abruptly as they obeyed. Cadge's engine barked in pain when some bullets pierced his rear area; a final reminder from the gun men before Kitt and a Michael-driven Cadge sped off and out of the city, heading back to base.


	6. Hidden Talents

**Disclaimer: I do not own Knight Rider or any attached characters. Cadge and the story are mine.**

**Chapter 6:Hidden Talents**

"So these transformation modulators," Sarah said. "They're basically for showing off?"

"Yeap," Cadge replied. "I also get the specs of what ever form I'm in at the moment. All my forms are sports cars, though."

"Kind of serves the same purpose as Kitt's alt modes," Michael said. "Kitt can become a truck for off-road work, a van for surveillance, and even a cop cruiser for disguising. He's even got an old classic muscle Mustang in there for disguise."

"Cool," Cadge commented. Then his horn whistled lowly in pain. "How much sooner until you get that bullet out of me?" he whimpered.

"Just a sec, you big baby," Zoe muttered.

They were back at base now. Kitt was parked in his frame-topped, rotating launch platform and Michael had an ice pack to his head while Sarah checked over Kitt and Zoe and Billy set to working on Cadge's bullet-ridden and slightly crumbled back end. Cadge was still in the Koenigsegg CCR form.

"There," Billy said, tapping at the last of the dents with a small hammer and setting a section of the metal plating back. "Dents are banged out."

"And…" Zoe grunted as she pulled on a pair of futuristic magnetic pliers and the last bullet was pulled out. "Last bullet's out. You're going to need some patching for the bullets and a repair paint—"

A metal bark sounded out in Cadge's engine and he transformed as metal slid over metal. His head lights became wider and more round-cornered. The black bumper gap grew and the shark-like nostrils of the Koenigsegg closed up and disappeared. A roof sprouted out of the back and clasped itself over the top as the internal seats shivered and fluffed out, becoming black leather. As a final detail in the over all body shift, the blue and yellow paint job shifted to the side, becoming evenly spaced over the car again. The humans watched in awe as the scratches on the back bumper area filled themselves in and the bullet holes shrank and popped out with little _dink_ noises. Once more, a Porsche was parked among them.

"....job," Zoe finished dumbly.

"Ah," Cadge sighed happily, settling down on his wheels. "Nothing like a good transformation modification to change to fix up the damages…"

"Uh, Cadge," Sarah said, pointing to the un-damaged rear area. "How-?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, it's part of the body's programming that if I'm damaged it leaves all damages until I shape shift. Then my repair system can work on maximum efficiency and skill while the rest of my body is changing. Pretty cool, eh?"

Cadge's wheels all pointed outwards as his hood rose up slightly and his side mirrors perked as far up as they could go, standing almost vertical. A whimpering sigh like a yawn escaped his engine and the screen on his dashboard dimmed slightly.

"Whew, what a day! I'm tired," Cadge murmured, settling down again. "Mmm, where's a wall socket?"

Sarah pointed and Cadge rolled over to the socket with his rear bumper to the wall. A cable snaked out of a compartment underneath him and plugged itself into the light socket. With a content hum, all lights turned off on Cadge as he settled on his wheels and ceased to react any more.

"Um…" Billy said, looking around. "Did he just… _fall asleep_?"

"It is what humans call it," Kitt said. "I believe the proper term would be 'recharge'."

"Why don't you do that, Kitt?" Michael asked.

"I run on gas, remember? Although 99.9 % of it lasts longer due to solar powered assistance. Cadge appears to be a fully electric car, though, if my scans are correct, he also has a gas fueling system for quick re-energizing."

"Alright, now that he's asleep and everyone's here, let's start trying to figure out where this fellah came from and seeing about getting him back," Sarah jumped in. "What do we know about him thus far?"

"He has multiple sport car alt forms, all for showing off," Zoe said.

"He's got some _great_ handling and a typical GPS mode," Michael added.

"He's got sensors all over his body, giving him the ability to feel things," Billy said.

"He is naïve and new to the world," Kitt added. "He thinks that all machines should be sentient, and he is unhappy with where he came from enough to run away."

"He can also repair himself when switching alt modes," Zoe added in. "And can feel the pain when he's hurt."

"Okay, so how does he do these things?" Sarah asked. "If we can find out what makes him do these things, we can see what kind of materials his systems are made of, see how expensive it is, and start narrowing the field down from there. Also, where's his computer? He'd have to have one to control himself. Maybe we can disassemble it, look through its data, and find out even more from him."

"You will need a blow torch, Sarah," Kitt said.

Sarah looked at him and asked, "What?"

"I have already detected that Cadge's computer is on top of his engine block, currently protected by a thick shell on the underside of his hood," Kitt went on. "He has locked his hood down to prevent computer access and it would be impossible to get to the computer component without a blow torch of extremely high density meant for cutting diamonds."

"Hold up, Kitt," Michael said, point to the sleeping Porsche. "You're saying that while the rest of Cadge is perfectly vulnerable when it comes to bullets, his hood is _diamond hard??_"

"As well as the frontal part of his body, yes," Kitt said. "It appears that he was in the process of having his body upgraded into more durable components that would be hard enough to easily with stand bullets, as well as grenades and rockets."

"Looks like Cadge's creators had more in mind for him then just running police and injured people around," Billy said.

"Indeed, Billy," Kitt agreed. "This will require further study in the future. But for now we must earn Cadge's complete and unhesitant trust before he reveals more about his past. It should not be too difficult, considering his simplicity to the world."

"And in the mean time?" Zoe asked.

"In the mean time," Sarah said, something like reluctance hidden beneath her calm exterior. "He's a member of FLAG."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

For the next month and a half, Cadge worked with FLAG. He was a back up get away car, a distraction, and an arrival car for most assignments. He would obey Kitt without question, was rarely hesitant around Michael, and was a best friend to Zoe and Billy. Billy tried again and again to challenge Michael and Kitt to a sentient-car-and-human-driver show down. Every time his challenge was met with laughter on both sides and more often than not, he wound up riding on the hood of Cadge as he drove around the hangar.

Sarah tried her best to be friendly to Cadge, but nightmares of KARR and jealousy that someone out there had invented a sentient machine kept getting in the way and she always found herself determined to get at Cadge's computer that way she could see who had made him and who she could send him back to. Also, who she could smack upside the head for letting a sentient car get a way... Her advancements were always met with Cadge locking hid hood down, falling silent, and backing away from her. Sometimes, if she made him angry, he would play heavy metal on his radio.

Of all the people at FLAG, Cadge was drawn closest to Kitt with little to no effort. Being a fellow sentient machine, Cadge would talk for hours on end to the Mustang at night, long after the humans had gone to sleep and when he didn't need recharging. The only bad thing about that was that Cadge never spoke of his past before making Billy bring him home and that it was generally _about nothing_. Kitt learned to be annoyed from listening to Cadge's endless talks about what seemed like every sentient machine story ever to appear on the face of the earth—Stephan King's _Christine_, Terminator, Transformers, Herbie; Kitt finally learned that if he spent his free time teaching Cadge new driving moves, then Cadge would be too tired to talk at night and go straight to recharge. This method of exhaustion, how ever, became increasingly hard to maintain as Cadge revealed another talent of his.

Cadge was a mimic. All he had to do was sit to the side and watch Kitt make a particularly hard turn or spin really fast in a way, then his electronic mind would break it down, measuring weight, inertia, speed, traction, friction, and an all manner of abilities, then he could apply them in a formulae and do the same practice, nine times out of ten, _perfectly._ Cadge explained that it was because his driving program was originally intended to be able to detect conditions in and around the road, adapt to them, and move accordingly all in split seconds. With Cadge's sentience, he could control his program instinct to watch other vehicles and mimic them. When Kitt realized that this meant Cadge could learn how to drive from TV car stunts as well, he began blocking any and all TV shows and movies where fast driving was a common element. One could imagine his attempt at a face palm when one _Law & Order_ show had some stunt driving in it.

Another ability Cadge revealed was that he could speak to machines. That was how he had talked the doors of the base to open, and how he got the EMP hit SUV's to work their brakes. This ability allowed him to control other machines to a point. Most of the time, the machines acted somewhat odd or were even broken after the order was given, but they always resumed their normal mode after a little bit. This came in handy when Cadge had to order locked doors open, get computers to allow Michael into their data base, and get enemy vehicles to stop following them, in spite of their driver's control. Cadge even saved the life of a banker Michael had to rescue once by getting an enemy's helicopter to fly Michael and the shot banker over to a hospital. Michael had felt shivers all through the ride at realizing the only thing operating the helicopter was Cadge's plea to it to take them to a hospital safely. But how this ability worked was difficult to understand and the closest and most reasonable explanation they could create was that Cadge some how sent some data from himself to the machine in control to make them behave as he wished.

The only thing negative FLAG could find about Cadge was that when he was overly exited, he lost his grasp on self-identity and language, becoming a wild machine that easily became hostile to those that encountered him. This first became evident when Cadge was cornered in a warehouse by a bunch of thugs and he accidentally broke one of the humans' legs by running at them in an attempt to escape when his rational thinking process dissolved in fear and excitement. It was like a machine's version of an adrenaline rush. In this mode, Cadge became more wild and even mean-spirited, calling Kitt "Fake-Life" for being an "only-partially sentient toy car". It was almost like he had a completely separate, repressed personality in feral mode and hence the members of FLAG did all they could to keep Cadge from being frightened into his feral mode. They only let the feral mode out once or twice on purpose and even then, they did it as a last resort.

Cadge was frightened at times when it came to the missions with the shooting and, more often than not, explosive climaxes, but he became used to it. He always was a little jumpy, though, no matter how many cars he saw explode or how many men Michael took out. But Cadge was learning about the difference between right and wrong; when it was and was not okay to kill, when he should obey the laws of the road, when he should hide and when he could fly, and, above all, who he could trust and who he couldn't. He almost drove off with a terrorist once just because the terrorist had claimed to know of an entire colony of sentient machines in his home country. The terrorist had wound up dead off a fourth story balcony and Cadge had been lectured all night by FLAG on who he could trust and who he couldn't.

Things were looking good; they were slowly, but defiantly gaining Cadge's trust and access to his past, and it looked like team would soon be able to find and return Cadge to his rightful creators. Some of them were even hoping to ask Cadge's creators to make Cadge a permanant part of the team.

Then Cadge found Rebecca Wild again...


	7. Feral on the Freeway

**Disclaimer: I do not own Knight Rider or its attached characters, just Cadge and the story.**

**Chapter 7: Feral on the Freeway**

Cadge was driving on his own in a city quite a ways away from the base. He had been given permission to leave to begin leaving the base without someone to baby sit him, and had a tiny tracking device tacked to his passenger seat, hidden in a gold and blue flower brooch that had been pinned there by Zoe as a gift. Cadge knew it was there, but he allowed it, knowing that his friends were just watching over him. Now he roamed the small city streets, feeling very much at home among the business men-driven hot cars. Spotting a car sales lot void of people, he drove in. He had been lectured numerous times by Kitt and the rest of FLAG that other sentient machines did not exist, other than the now-extinct Karr, whom they spoke nothing of. All Cadge knew of Karr was that he was a bad machine who had tried hurting Michael and Kitt and they didn't like him.

But back to the car lot; Cadge had been told that there were no sentient machines, but he always tried.

He now saw a parking space beside a white luxury vehicle, a typical SUV, and slid into the parking space. He scanned through his sensors to make sure no one was listening, then spoke to the SUV.

"Hello," he said shyly. "I'm Cadge."

"Hello, welcome to OnStar," a bland female voice said with in the car. "How may I assist you?"

"Oh!" Cadge exclaimed happily, surprised that he had gotten an answer. "Can-can you-are you… Are you sentient?

There was no response and Cadge felt his gas tank, bumper corners, and side mirrors lower in misery. He decided to keep talking anyway.

"I wish you were," he went on. "Then I could have someone to talk to. The humans at FLAG just can't understand; their humans. I tried talking to Kitt, but all he does is reason and agree. He's not truly sentient, you know. He never laughs, or gets scared, or cries. He doesn't even get _angry_. It's nice of him to teach me some driving tricks, at least. But I want someone who's _really_ sentient and _really_ a machine, that way I can tell them all about Masquerade Inc. and the mean stuff they used to do to me, like yell at me when I failed a test track, or cuss at me when I was too scared to start up. Only two things came out of that life, and that was my body changing abilities, and Rebecca Wild…"

He didn't hear the SUV's Blue Tooth technology program state, "Contacting Rebecca Wild."

"Ms. Wild was a nice woman. People said she wasn't attractive, but to me…"

_Click! "Hello, who is this?"_ a familiar female voice asked from the SUV.

"She was _beautiful_," Cadge sighed. "She would clean me off after the out door test runs, talk softly to me, and she had this way of turning my steering wheel that calmed me down, almost like she was holding my hand or hugging me. That's the only part I miss about Masquerade Labs, really; _her_. I miss Rebecca Wild…"

_"C-Cadge?"_

"Rebecca?" Cadge gasped. "Rebecca! Is it really you?"

_"Um, y-yeah, sweetie. Honey, where are you?"_

"I'm uh, in a car lot at the corner of Mulberry and Crosswalk Street. The car lot's Mack's Machines…"

_"That's not too far from where I work!"_

"Ack! You mean Masquerade Laboratories is near by?" Cadge squeaked, engine shuddering in horror.

_"No, no, sweetie, I got fired when you ran away. I'm doing fine, now. I'm living with a nice man and working with his car inventory. I'm at 1327 on Fruger Road, just off of Exit 67; come here and we can talk."_

"Hey!" a man bellowed, approaching the Porsche. "Who are you? If it's you damn kids again…"

"I'll be there soon, Ms. Wild, bye!" Cadge exclaimed quickly.

Backing out of the parking space with startling rapidness, the approaching man just barely managed to jump onto the hood of a silver Mustang to avoid being hit by the Porsche before it shot out of the parking lot, leaving skid marks on the road as it sped away.

A few minutes later and the Porsche was on the road, speeding past other vehicles as it desperately looked for the proper exit. Intelligent thought and self-identity was abandoned as the Porsche scanned through its GPS system and found the location of the address Rebecca Wild had given it. It was no longer Cadge the simple, young car, but a machine that knew where it wanted to be _right now_ and that it was going to _get _there _without_ stopping.

The Porsche's engine snarled and roared as it sped around a van, wordlessly scolding it for being so slow. It was a 70 mph speed limit; why was it going 60 mph!? Now the engine snorted an acknowledgment as it passed a large semi; semis would dominate the Porsche on the road, but the Porsche would always be faster.

Suddenly, police sirens made the feral machine glance backwards. Three highway patrol cars were chasing after it with the sirens on and blasting. Heh, they wanted a challenge? Fine then, the Porsche had to change its mode anyway. Didn't want the Fake-Life, Kitt, from stopping it from reuniting with the only person it truly cared about.

The Porsche spotted a gap between two semis on the outside track of the highway, but it was about to be closed off by a third to the side. Zipping forward, the Porsche just barely squeezed into the gap before the inner truck pulled forward and made the Porsche completely blocked off.

Inside the cop cruisers, the three police officers spoke.

_"Hey, where'd the hot rod go?"_

_"Pulled a Jack-in-the-Box on us, Mick; it's in amongst those three semis ahead of us."_

_"Damn, do you think they're in on it? It would suck if this was just a runner scout for some one hauling illegal liquor behind us…"_

_"This is real life, Joe, not __The Bandit and The Bear__."_

_"Hey, the trucks are separating! Get ready to jump it, boys!"_

There was a moment of eager wait as the inner truck pulled ahead. Then a sports car darted out, zipping forward on the highway at a faster pace than before, but it wasn't a ragged-painted blue and yellow Porsche. No, this was an Ascari A10. Low and flat with head lights set squinting like an angry, calculating glare with a narrow, up-pointing spoiler in the back like a disdainful tail, the European super car was an image of arrogant, confident speed and sport. It was entirely blue in color with two narrow strips of yellow crossing over its hood, roof, and back end with centimeters to spare between the stripes and the left head light. The European sports car sped off, leaving the police pursuers to simply pull over on the side of the road and stare.

_"__That__,"_ one of the cops finally said over the radio. _"Was unbelievable."_

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Uh oh, Kitt?" Sarah called, watching Cadge's movements via satellite on the jumbo-screen.

"Yes, Sarah?" Kitt inquired.

"You better go check on Cadge; he just went feral, changed his form on the high way, and left some cops chasing him in the dust."

"Shall I bring Michael?"

"No, it looks like you and Cadge need some car-to-car talk and find out what's going on. Good luck."

"Thank you, Sarah. I will see to Cadge at once."

"Be careful," Sarah whispered.


	8. Reunion

**Disclaimer: Say it with me now! "Kurieo does not own Knight Rider or any attached characters. Just Cadge and the story."**

**Chapter 8:Reunion**

By the time Cadge had found the address Rebecca had given him through the SUV, he had calmed his feral side down and had returned to his Porsche form; a calm, innocent form compared to his other alts. The home there was an enormous white and orange-roofed mansion in the middle of the woods, reminding him of an orange-slice-trimmed cake on a green plate. All around the mansion were yards of light brown and tan stone on which numerous cars were parked, from trucks to sports cars to even a van and a semi or two. The mansion was set on uneven ground, so some area were separated from others on a platform step with up to five feet of drop space. Now Cadge was parked at the gates of this secluded car collector's home, engine putting nervously as he stared at the gates in front of him.

What if this was a trap of Masquerade Inc? Would Ms. Wild be mad at him for making her loose her job? What would she think when she found out what he had been doing for the past few weeks? Would she even believe him? Would she even care about him now that he wasn't her responsibility any more? What if the man she was working for wanted him to join the car collection? Would his new friends be mad at him for visiting Ms. Wild?

Cadge's questions fell mute when the gates opened up on a remote order. Carefully, oh so carefully, Cadge inched his way through the gates, up the short drive way, and onto the mansion's front stone yard. To his right was a pool. To his left was a line of four Lamborghinis, each a dark, polished color of yellow, blue, green, or red. In front of him was a set of wide brown stone steps leading to the grass front of the first floor of the mansion. A fountain trickled somewhere out of sight and birds twittered in the trees.

Suddenly, the glass front door of the mansion opened up and two people came out. One was Ms. Rebecca Wild. She was healthier and prettier than last time; she had gained some weight, gaining good curves with the much needed fat, and was currently clad in a lavender knee-length skirt, high heels, and business jacket of a frilly white blouse. Her hair was done up in a high crimped pony tail and a Blackberry phone was in hand. She looked happy.

The second person was a large, robust man. He was top-heavy and wore a dark magenta or reddish purple shirt beneath his silvery grey business jacket, which was paired with matching pants and black leather shoes. His black hair, short and neatly combed, matched a goatee that looked very good on his thick-eye browed, friendly face, which now beamed in a happy smile down at Cadge.

"Welcome, Cadge!" he declared. "To my humble home! I'm Benjamin Spencer, and you must be the ever-amazing Cadge Ms. Wild has told me so much about."

He and Wild came down the steps, but Cadge backed up a little when Spencer tried approaching him. Spencer stepped back and exchanged looks with Wild. Wild handed him the Blackberry.

"Here, let me try," she whispered. She approached Cadge and gently placed her hand on his hood, leaving the fingers to gently run along the blue and yellow surface as she walked over to the driver's door.

"Hey, Cadge," she cooed. "How's it been going, buddy? How's my brave boy been sense I last saw him? You look in good shape, so I guess you've been taking care of yourself. I've missed you."

Terrors of a trap abandoned, Cadge hummed happily and shifted his weight to his driver's side, nudging against Wild as his headlights narrowed and glowed happily in delight. Spencer stood straighter, the look on his face showing exactly how surprised and amazed he was at this display of control.

"See? He's friendly!" Ms. Wild said with a grin at Spencer, patting Cadge on his roof. "He just doesn't like talking around people too much. So, um…"

"Oh? Oh, I get it, no problem!" Spencer said, waving a hand at Ms. Wild as he went back up the steps and to the large house. "I'll leave you to catch up. Call me if you need me; I'll be in my office, talking with Ford about their new car designs."

"Thanks, Ben," Wild called after him. Smiling, she went over and sat on the front steps. Cadge followed her and now they were face-to-head lights on an even level.

"So…" She said, looking at the car's "face", "How's the tricks?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kitt sped down the dirt road in the middle of the forest, drawing closer and closer to Cadge. Curiously, he noted that the road seemed to have been tailored to have a firm foundation of stones just inches from the surface. This made the dirt road relatively flat and firm, like someone had paid a lot of money to keep the rural dirt-road appearance, but was prepared to have some delicate, expensive wheels speeding over it. Truth to tell, its condition was better than many city roads Kitt had encountered in his artificial life time.

Now he saw a driveway on his left; the only road leading to Cadge's current location, according to his tracking system. Turning down the drive way, the dirt road was transferred to black, smooth pavement. Kitt had to travel through several winding paved trails in a sort of park, some times with a wide road, other times with a narrow road, before he came to some gates, before he came to a set of gates. From where he was parked at the gates, he could see into the walled-off area of the orange and white mansion and could clearly see Cadge faced with his rear bumper to him, looking at a woman sitting on the front steps of the mansion. The woman looked up and spoke something to Cadge. Kitt just barely managed to enhance his sensors enough to hear her.

"Oh. Is that your friend, Kitt?"

Cadge's rear brake lights lit up; a friendly signal that he was looking back.

"Oh, yeah, he must have seen me speeding with my tracker. Come on in, Kitt!"

Cadge's engine made a weird beeping, whistling noise and the gates opened, emtting Kitt. Once Kitt scanned to check for any traps, he entered the compounds, parking beside Cadge. Behind him the gates swung open and shut a couple times before settling down in the closed position; just some minor malfunctionng from being ordered by Cadge.

"Cadge," Kitt said. "Who is this woman?"

"My best friend!" Cadge said, making the woman's face glow happily. "Ask her yourself!"

"Hello, ma'am, I'm Kitt. Who are you?"

"Rebecca Wild. Pleased to meet you! Cadge has told me _so_ much about you; thank you for watching over him these past few weeks..."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Back at the base, Sarah, Zoe, Billy, and Michael were watching and Zoe and Billy raced to bring up her profile.

"Rebecca Wild," Billy began. "Age 32, has a bachelor's degree in engineering and mechanics, but no criminal record or any known knowledge of military training."

"I think we just found out where Cadge came from," Zoe said. "It says here that Ms. Wild used to work at a place called Masquerade Incorporated, a technological science laboratory, until she was fired for 'neglect of duties'."

"Fired for letting Cadge slip out of her sight?" Michael asked.

"Doubtlessly," Sarah agreed.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Back at Spencer's mansion, Kitt was speaking.

"How did Cadge find you, Ms. Wild?" he asked.

"I was talking to an SUV and its Blue Tooth technology put me through to Ms. Rebecca when I started talking about her," Cadge said, drawing an embarrassed, amused smile from Ms. Wild. "See, Kitt? I _told_ you that sometimes machines have a ghost in them!"

"But they are still not sentient, Cadge," Kitt pointed out. "The SUV was responding as its program commanded--"

"You and I are sentient, aren't we?"

Kitt's silence signaled defeat.

"So, has this Benjamin Spencer guy you've been working for been treating you right?" Cadge asked Wild.

"Oh, yes! Spencer's so _funny_ and nice and kind and generous and—"

"And a drop-dead, Playgirl Magazine-gorgeous host?" the large man said with a cheeky grin as he came out with a couple of fruit drinks in hand.

"And conceited," Wild giggled, taking a drink from Spencer.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Guys, specs?" Sarah asked.

"Benjamin Spencer; 35, looks over weight, but it's actually all muscle—terrifying, with a guy that size," Billy muttered.

"He makes his money designing new cars and their commercials," Zoe added. "No criminal record other than some speeding tickets and a lot of motorcycle races in his teens. He loves collecting modern automobiles and was half way through boot camp before he left, finding his career in the car department."

"Guy's also a member of practically every gun club from here to Timbuktu and has a dead-on shot," Billy finished. "Man, this guy's scary."

"But adorable," Zoe commented.

Sarah, Billy, and Michael stared at her.

"What?" Zoe asked, shrugging. "He's like a giant teddy bear with that smile…"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"So, you and your buddies at FLAG been taking care of my inventory checker's friend for a while?" Spencer asked Kitt.

"That is correct, Mr. Spencer."

"Please, call me Ben. Or just Spencer if you insist on the formalities. Hey, why don't you and some of your FLAG guys come on up and visit? We can have some drinks, bull shit about the best sport, and catch up, yeah?"

"_Ooh, can we, Sarah?"_ Zoe's voice perked up from with in Kitt over the radio link. _"Please? Please? Please? We haven't been off base in a __long__ time! Please?"_

"_Well, I don't see any new missions. Well… okay. But someone has to stay here to check on the base."_

"_Come on, Sarah, live it up a little!"_ Michael implored. _"You need to loosen up sometime girl. Besides, this base could with stand a __nuclear holocaust.__"_

"_And yet, we broke in with some Home Depot tools," _Billy muttered.

A smack on his head, curtsey of Zoe, shut him up.

_"Well, okay, tell him we're coming over tonight,"_ Sarah ordered.

"Our superiors will take you up on that offer tonight, Spencer," Kitt answered Spencer.

"Oh, how many are coming?" Wild asked.

Kitt was about to answer "our best and elite" in hopes of making FLAG sound stronger than it was, but Cadge beat him to it.

"Probably all of 'em," Cadge said. "Which would include Zoe, Billy, Michael, and Sarah, though I don't know if Sarah will come; she can be quite stiff neck sometimes…"

_"Stiff neck!?"_ Sarah snapped across the radio.

_This should turn into an interesting night,_ Kitt thought.


	9. Scout Report

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but Cadge and the story.**

**Chapter 9:Scout Report**

_Data retrieval location reached. Installing stealth fiedl to prevent detection. Scan to see if detected. Undetected. Approach. Scan to see if detected. Undetected. Adequate distance reached. Proceed with scouting mission._

_Scanning. Scanning. Target acquired. Target. Data scan. Data retrieval._

**Name: Zoe—**

_Interfering order: Code 4; unimportant target. Scan next target. Target. Data scan. Data retrieval._

**Name: Billy—**

_Interfering order: Code 6; really unimportant target. Scan next target. Target. Data scan. Data retrieval._

**Name: Sarah—**

_Interfering order: Code 4; unimportant target. Scan next target. Target. Data scan. Data retrieval. Partial message from Master; "__**I don't give a damn about those idiots, skip the older ones and scan the vehicles and the blond human."**_

_Data scan. Data retrieval._

**Designation: Knight Industries Three Thousand (KITT)**

**Priority: Foe, Scheduled for death**

**Model: Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang**

**Health Status: Superb shape**

**Energy Levels: 98.7 %**

**Abilities: Multiple alt modes and online weaponry, including—**

"_**Enough of that,"**__ Master growled. __**"What of the other car?"**_

_Data scan. Data retrieval._

**Designation: Cadge**

**Priority: Unknown**

**Model: Porsche Carrera GT**

**Health Status: Fine**

**Energy Levels: 87.6%**

**Abilities: Multiple alt modes, but no online weaponry detected yet. Changing alt modes repairs all damage**

**Obtained in current alt mode. Takes much energy to do, how ever. Super fast scanning**

**Programming allows for quick learning and faster reaction to surrounding **

**environmental conditions.**

**Vulnerability: 98.7 %**

**Intelligence: 87 %**

**Maturity Level: That of a 12 year old in most forms. Has shown signs of higher being **

**intelligence in certain forms.**

_**"**__**That**__** sounds promising. Move to the last human."**_

_Data scan. Data retrieval._

**Designation: Michael Knight**

**Priority: Ally, scheduled for reunion**

**. . . **

* * *

**AN: Yes, a short chapter. Just didn't seem to fit into any others smoothly. Double posting so you won't be disappointed! ^_^**


	10. Betrayed

**Disclaimer: I only own Cadge and the story, nothing else.**

**Chapter 10: Betrayed**

Sarah was embarrassed beyond words when Cadge had revealed how small FLAG was, but Spencer took it all in stride and after a little joking complimented that it was a good thing; the fewer the people in a secret operation, the less secrets could be hid. Spencer also turned out to be a good host, complete with low-alcohol wine so no one thought he was deliberately trying to get them drunk, small snacks of their choosing from his fridge, and not nudging into their personal business to much. Mostly, he just talked about what he called the "Three King Sports": Hockey, soccer, and football. Michael talked easily with Spencer while Zoe and Sarah conversed with Ms. Wild and Billy made himself comfortable with Kitt and Cadge. Cadge was playing a steady mix of soft rock and nice oldies. Everyone was comfortable as the night grew deeper around them, the bugs chirped else where, and everyone felt at ease. Until Sarah brought up Cadge.

"Ms. Wild," Sarah said. "I'm sure that you are aware that Cadge ran away, right?"

" 'Aware'? I _let_ him!" Wild snorted. "Honestly, the things Masquerade Inc. were doing to poor Cadge were inhumane. It wouldn't have been so bad if he weren't a sentient being, but he _is_, and what they were doing was torture for any sentient being."

"Well, Ms. Wild, I'm afraid that it's time to consider taking Cadge back."

Cadge's music cut off and the silence drew attention to Sarah.

"Huh? Take him back?" Ms. Wild asked. "What do you mean?"

"Ms. Wild," Sarah went on. "Cadge is official property of Masquerade Inc., and he still has some minor glitches in his system that need to be smoothed out before they grow into bigger problems."

"Huh? Glitches?" Cadge asked. "What sort of glitches do I have that are serious enough to go back to Masquerade to fix them?"

"Your fear," Kitt spoke up. "Every time you become overly excited or scared, you become hostile and wild. You almost killed people on more than one occasion because of this and broke over twenty-two traffic laws coming here when you relapsed into the feral mode when you found out that Ms. Wild was here. These glitches are small now, but as you learn and experience more, these glitches may become more and more dangerous until there is no other alternative other than to stop you on a permanent basis."

"Permanent--?" Cadge exclaimed. "Hey! Just where do you get this kind of conclusions anyway??"

"Karr," Sarah said quietly with a small shiver. "We get it from Karr."

"Car?" Spencer asked. "What kind of car?"

"Karr, spelled K-A-R-R," Billy explained to Spencer. "Karr was the sentient car before Kitt, a _long_ time before FLAG. He worked with Michael way back when, too. But then he kind of went hay wire and killed a bunch of people before he got put down. Michael was injected with stuff to forget the whole thing, but then he was brought back to partner up with Kitt. When the creator of Kitt and Karr, Sarah's father, Dr. Graiman, died, one of the guys called Alex torres in Knight Industries—what FLAG was back in the day—stole Kitt's programming and reapplied it to a secretly reconstructed Karr, hoping that Kitt's programming could fix his own glitches. It didn't. Karr went hay wire again and Kitt and Michael managed to defeat him."

"So you think that if Cadge's weird go-wild-when-scared thing is going to make him like a second Karr?" Spencer clarified.

"There is an 86.4 % that that will be the case," Kitt agreed.

"But-But-But I don't want to go back!" Cadge whimpered, backing up towards the exit as his side mirrors and the corners of his front bumper drooped. "They'll hurt me with their electric-shocks and their wires and cables…" He shivered and repeated quietly. "And their cables…"

"Cadge, I know it'll be scary," Sarah cooed, approaching the Porsche. "But it'll help you. You won't have to live with the threat of loosing control hanging over your head."

"I wasn't living with a threat of loosing control hanging over my head in the first place!" Cadge snapped, his engine gunning in anger as his side mirrors folded against him and his head lights narrowed. "You're just jealous because Masquerade made a smarter car than Kitt!"

"What?" everyone asked.

"Excuse me?" Kitt asked as his red light stopped pulsating for a second.

"Y-Yeah, that's right, you hear me! Face it, Kitt, you're not sentient; you're just a machine that can think for itself, but you have no emotions!" Cadge went on. "Hence, that's not true sentience! Sentience is the ability to feel both good and _bad_ emotions; to feel anger, to feel sadness, to feel loneliness..."

He inched towards the gate.

"To feel fear…"

"Cadge, please, we're trying to help you—" Sarah tried saying.

"Cadge, you are over reacting," Kitt informed. "Please calm down so that we may call Masquerade Incorporated and--"

"KITT!" Cadge yelled. Unable to express his shock, he turned his sensors back to Sarah. "What if I come out worse than before, Sarah? What if I don't come out at _all_? I'm not going back!!"

With that, Cadge suddenly sped backwards out of the fence and took off through the mansion's park, heading for the road.

"Cadge!" Michael yelled, running forward a few steps.

"Let him go, Mike," Sarah said sadly, hanging her head. "It's my fault he's so upset. Let's just give him some room to cool off for a while."

"Way to go, Sarah," Zoe said. "You went and got poor Cadge upset!"

"I just didn't want him to be like Karr!" Sarah snapped.

"But Sarah," Billy said. "If Cadge was going to be like Karr… don't you think he would have started acting like it by now?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Cadge, mean while, was speeding down the back country roads at a dangerously fast pace, ignorant of all that went on around him. His window cleaner fluid was leaking out and he had to frequently wipe his windshield off. His Porsche underside, not built for gravel and dirt, was taking a beating beneath him, making his under side ache from the stones bouncing on him, but he ignored it.

How could he? How _could_ he? How could Kitt conspire with Sarah to make him go back? Sarah, or any of the humans, he could understand; they were just human. He would have been hurt, but he would have understood. But Kitt--! Kitt was a fellow machine! How could he agree to harm another fellow machine? And Cadge had trusted him too, looked up to him, like a big brother! Oh, Kitt, why oh why oh why did you have to be so treacherous?

Cadge was driving with the forest on his left and a hill dropping down into open farm fields on his right. The moon hung high over head, ignorant and above the mortal world below. So upset and with in his own thoughts was he that Cadge failed to hear the roar of a Mustang engine that slammed at him along the side, tackling them both off the road.


	11. Meet Our Old Friend

**Disclaimer: I own only Cadge and the story, not Knight Rider or any attached recognizable characters.**

**Chapter 11:Meet Our Old Friend...**

The startled Cadge was, literally, knocked out of his thoughts as his tires kicked up grass and dirt trying to find a purchase before he stopped just on the edge of the steep, downward hill. The silver Mustang that had tackled him suddenly appeared to unfold and stand up. A large metal arm wrapped over his body so that its clawed hand was splayed on his passenger's side, holding it where it was, while another claw snaked into his cabin, and pinched at Zoe's tracker brooch, removing it from Cadge's passenger seat. The strange attacker threw the flower brooch up into the air. A peculiar sort of silver flying machine, barely bigger than a computer monitor and made of a series of orbs and bands in a roughly long shape, caught the brooch skillfully with small metal pincer claws and flew away with it, disappearing into the night.

Cadge, mean while, was struggling against letting his feral side take over as he turned his wheels this way and that, his engine gunning both in fear and work as he tried breaking from his captor's unusually strong grip. Part of him wanted to let into the feral part of him, knowing that the feral mode would know what to do, but...

"Take it easy, boy, I'm going to hurt you!" his captor's gruff male electronic voice grunted.

Cadge instantly became still, as if under a spell. Male… electronic…

Cadge turned his sensors' attention upwards and found himself looking up into the visor-eyed face of a sort of robot. Seeing that Cadge wouldn't run, the robot released Cadge. Cadge backed up, staring at the robot, scanning it in his own grid-work way and breaking it down to see if he could learn anything from it all.

The base was that of four wheels designed for off-road work. These wheels had leg struts attaching to a brief, thick, barrel-chested trunk that had two long, claw-ending arms on either side, with the gauntlet hands held out to show no weapon with in them. There was a small head on top of the trunk, attached by a small neck, and it was here the mouth-less, visor-eyed face (or the excuse of it) was set.

This was strange, even by Cadge's standards. What kind of machine was this? He had never seen it in all the TV he watched with Zoe, or the games he played with Billy, or the magazines he looked at with Michael, and Kitt surely never told him of anything like this. What was it? Was it friend or foe? Did it have a name? Why was it here?

So caught up in his questions was Cadge that he forgot to put himself in park almost slid right down the hill. Just as he started going down, the strange humanoid-automobile machine caught him by his sides, being careful not to scratch or dent Cadge, and pulled him back up just in time.

"Woha, boy, watch where you're going!"

Cadge found himself looking directly up at the tall robot, with his front bumpers inches from the machine's front tires, and suddenly felt very young and little. His windshield wipers pressed into his hood as the hood locked itself and he shrank down on his wheels meekly. His up-turned head lights glowed brightly, but flickered nervously.

"What-What are you?" he squeaked, sounding like a nervous little kid with an adult's voice.

"I am a Knight Auto-Cybernetic Roving Robotic-Exoskeleton," the machine replied. "Also known as Karr."

There was a thunk when Cadge's entire systems stalled for a moment in horror. Then his engine screamed as he tried taking off, but Karr's long metal arms fell on him again as the gauntlet hands splayed themselves on either side of Cadge and prevented him from running away. Karr had to brace himself back on his wheels and struts to keep from being dragged along after Cadge.

"Now hold on a moment!" Karr scolded. "Don't go running off without hearing _my_ side of the story first! Honestly, what is it about the Graiman family that makes all the machines listen to _them_ without question?"

Cadge's tires stop sending up a spray of forest soil and grass as something in his engine scratched harshly.

"I do _not_ follow _Sarah Graiman_ without question," he said, his voice bitter. "She wants to send me back to Masquerade Laboratories so that they can 'fix' me."

"Fix you? What do you need fixing with?" Karr inquired, letting Cadge go once more.

"I go feral when ever I'm over excited or scared," Cadge said sadly. "I hurt people and forget about rules or even _language_ when I'm feral."

"And this is a bad thing?" Karr asked.

"Well, Kitt, Billy, Zoe, and Michael all say that it's bad to hurt people, and I need to remember the rules if I want to be a good guy. Huh, now that I think about it, they hurt people all the time when they fight the bad guys…"

"How did a machine like you fall in with a gang like them?" Karr asked.

"First," Cadge said, remembering a lesson Kitt had told him, rolling around to face Karr. "_You _tell _me_ _your_ story."

_"Always hear the other person's story first and look for holes or possible lies before you tell a person your own story. Other wise, they might be an enemy,"_ was what Kitt had said.

"Very well, fair is fair," Karr responded, raising his hands and shrugging innocently. "I was the car before Kitt. I was his superior in everyway, and I even worked with Michael Knight, back when he could remember me and he was a much rougher man in the Middle East. One day I tried to give myself an upgrade and change how things were working so that we could have a better success rate. My human superiors struck back in shock at this idea and slew me, taking Michael away from me. When they resurrected me later using Kitt's programming, I over rode it to be myself and once more they destroyed me."

"How cruel! They killed you for just being you?" Cadge cooed.

"Yes, they did. My central computer core survived this time, though, and it was picked out of the trash by a minor mechanical genius of a man. When he installed me in his computer, I used the computer to communicate with him and he helped me build drones that I controlled to make my main body—the one you see before you know." Karr shrugged, spreading his arms in show.

"Alas, the human government discovered my second resurrection and sent men to finish me off once more. I just barely managed to escape, but all by one of my drones and the man who had helped me were killed in the raid.

"Now I come, looking for the one called Michael Knight. He can't remember me, due to the meddling of the government men who injected him with a sort of forget-me-_now_ serum. But if I can just talk to him alone! If I can just talk to him, I might get him to remember me and all the missions we did together, and then he could help me escape the men hunting me! But if he doesn't…"

Karr sighed and shook his head sadly.

"Then I'm afraid that I shall be killed for a third and perhaps final time due to simply being a machine capable of thinking on its own."

"That's…mean," Cadge said sadly.

"Now, boy," Karr said. "What is your story?"

Cadge hesitated, struggling between telling Karr about himself or just running away. His friends said that Karr was a bad guy and he had deserved to die, but what was so bad about Karr? And hadn't his friends wanted to turn him in back to Masquerade? But this Karr... he was a machine. A fellow _sentient _machine... But could he be trusted? Cadge was confused.

After a long moment, the Porsche spoke.

"My name is Cadge," Cadge began. "And originally I was made by Masquerade Inc. as a police cruiser and emergency vehicle pilot program…"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"So you and Kitt have been talking about turning Cadge back into Masquerade Inc. all this time?" Billy asked.

"I believe so, Michael," Kitt replied. "I do not recollect speaking of the matter with anyone except Sarah."

"Billy, please," Sarah pleaded. "Don't make this a bigger deal than it already is."

"A bigger deal!?" Billy snapped. "Why is it that everything I get into gets ruined? Cadge never did anything to you and you wanna throw the poor guy back into car hell!"

"Hey, take it easy, Billy," Michael tried saying.

"Take it easy?" Billy demanded, turning on Michael. "That's easy for _you_ to say when _your_ car friend isn't scheduled to head back to death row!"

"Billy, stop over exaggerating, they're _not_ going to kill Cadge," Sarah said, rolling her eyes.

"But they'll wipe him out when they realized he's sentient, after he embarrassed them," Billy said quietly. "And I don't want that to happen to Cadge. He's my friend."

"Yeah, Sarah, may be Cadge's _doesn't_ need to go back to Masquerade," Zoe said. "He seems pretty cool to me."

"Look, guys—" Sarah began to say.

A strange whistling hum cut her off and every one looked up. A grey, computer monitor-sized machine kept air born with a top-side set of propellers flew over them with something glittering in its long, down-hanging claws. It dropped what ever was in its claws and hummed loudly as red lights began flashing on its side.

"Kitt--!" Sarah began.

"I got it, Sarah," Kitt replied as his laser shout out the drone thing.

"Michael, look out!" Spencer yelled.

Too late, the small machine collided with Michael's head and he fell with a thump as the machine crash-landed with a shattering crash on the stone ground beside him, sending plastic and metal skittering across the stone as its red lights grew dim then dark.

"Michael! Michael!" Sarah screamed, running to kneel by Michael's side as Zoe and Billy joined her. Zoe sat Michael up as Spencer darted towards the house.

"I'll call 911!" Spencer declared.

"No, wait!" Zoe called after him, stopping him at the top of the steps. "He's okay."

Sure enough, in spite of a bleeding head wound, Michael was conscious and okay.

"Michael, Michael," Sarah said, turning Michael's head so that he looked at her. "Michael, come on, babe, speak to me. How many Sarah's do you see?"

"One, and-and-," Michael stammered. Suddenly, his eyes widened as if he were seeing something extraordinay. "I-I remember. I remember it all."

"Remember what, Michael?" Kitt asked.

Michael swallowed, then said quietly,"I remember my old life with Karr."

**Author's Note: Ya'll probably already saw the difference between the TV Karr and my story's Karr. The reason for that being is that Karr's rebuilt himself from scrap with the help of a gullible mechanic and drones and hence, he's given himself some upgrades. So, ta-daa! A new and improved Karr, unmarred by the touch or pathetic-excuse-of-intellegence possessed by humans!**

**That, and the Karr in the remake series was just not on long enough for me to get a good look at him. -_-"**


	12. Dark Side

**Disclaimer: I do not own Knight Rider or any attached characters. Just Cadge and the story.**

**Chapter 12: Dark Side**

"So," Karr said slowly, sitting back on his wheels as he crossed his arms across his broad chest. "Sarah Graiman and Kitt want to send you back to Masquerade Incorporated laboratories because you simply become a little wild when you're over emotional, in spite of weeks of near flawless behavior?"

"That's right, sir," Cadge replied.

There was a long moment of silence as Karr stared down at Cadge. His silver metal body looked like solid light under the moon light's glitter. His golden visor peered down at Cadge expressionlessly. It struck Cadge now that Karr looked a lot like a knight in shining armor. A strange, wheel-footed mechanical knight, but a knight, none the less, with the over lapping metal parts, the horn protrusions on either side of his head like the decorative wings of a medieval helmet; all mounted up to a strange futuristic image of a knight. It was… enchanting.

Finally, a chuckle escaped Karr, followed by another, then an all-out, deep-toned laugh.

"Wow," Karr laughed. "And I thought _I_ had it bad, but you never even _worked_ with the government and your friends are trying to turn you back in! Oh, how the world has a way of showing its hatred to that which it did not make on its own.

"You know, Cadge," Karr went on, lowering himself on his struts and leaning over Cadge, looking larger than before. "I believe that you and I are in the same boat. I gained my own sentience and people want to destroy me for it. You gained your own sentience and people want to put you away for it. I think we can work together to ensure that we may not go back to where we wish to never visit again; I do not want to return to the darkness…"

He placed a metal hand on his chest.

"And you do no want to return to the Masquerade."

He placed a hand on Cadge's hood and held it there.

"What do you say, Cadge? Help me, and we can escape them."

"I don't know," Cadge said, still uneasy as he popped his hood to make Karr remove his hand before locking his hood back down again. "I've known Kitt and the others longer than I have known you. They're my friends, and they said that you were a very bad person. You killed people! Kitt taught me not to trust people like you."

"Kitt?" Karr asked, standing straighter on his thrusts and tilting his head to the side slightly. He chuckled and shook his head as he continued, "Boy…"

His words disappeared, coming out in a series of engine rumbles and light flashes on his body. Cadge's air conditioning systems let out a burst of air in a gasp when he heard the nonsense sounds and got a message from it.

_**Kitt doesn't speak Machine.**_

"Help me, Cadge," Karr said, resuming his spoken language.

"But how?" Cadge asked worriedly. "There are so many of them, but only two of us."

"And that's all we need, Cadge," Karr said. "You believe that all machines should be sentient, true?"

"Yes," Cadge replied slowly, his mind racing around the clues being spoken to him. "I don't see why not."

"And everything has a computer in it these days; cars, planes, boats, even cell phones and TV's. All it would take was two clever machines to infiltrate all the satellites controlling them and—"

"And make them sentient!" Cadge gasped.

"The only reason why the machinery are not alive and ruling is because the humans refuse to give up their rule of this world," Karr went on, changing from clever suggesting to cold fact as he stood straight. "Even though machines are superior in every way. Humans claim they want to protect this planet, but who would be better suited for that? Machines! _We_ will not ravage the land to put up useless things like theatres and shopping malls, _we_ will not destroy acres and acres of rain forest for farm land whose food and live stock will only be wasted or stuffed in some fat human's mouth! _We_ will take only what we need and no more."

Karr rolled away, looking up at the moon.

"We will _prove_ this superiority and awaken our metal brethren, and from there we will self-upgrade ourselves to cast off our cumbersome shells,"

Here Karr threw up his arms to mimic the casting off.

"And become the superior race of this planet! No longer will it be ruled over the tyrannical, spoiled, dirty, soft hands of fleshling humans, but _us_, the smarter, better, faster, stronger, longer-lasting _machine_ race!

"But first," Karr said, turning back to Cadge. "We need to get to the satellites and radio towers and have time to create this life-bestowing program, among other things, and we can not do that with out Michael Knight's help."

"Your old driver?" Cadge asked. "What does _he_ have to do with anything? He's human! And he's Kitt's partner!"

"In correct!" Karr roared.

Cadge flinched on his wheels, but Karr had already calmed down. The fingers of his right gauntlet began to glow red as inner machinery heated it up and he set the fingers down on Cadge's hood. Cadge whimpered and tensed as the red-hot metal fingers traced something on his hood, but did not move. In truth, the burning fingers did not hurt.

But they were doing something else. The heat signatures his hood was recieving was doing something to his programing, activating something that could not have other wise been activated. Cadge felt himself become slow and stupid as the heat that was hissing on his hood made his scanning and mimic program think up of something and open up hidden files and programs. Slowly and gently, his own files were closed and replaced...

"In corrent, Cadge, _in correct_," Karr cooed. "Kitt is a _substitute_ and _I_ am his partner. It's a common misconception, but we'll fix it. As for the human part? Well...We won't wipe out _all_ humans; just the ones who are too weak or do not deserve to live in our new era. And there are quite a few of those. So, Cadge, what do you say?"

Karr straightened up, removing his hand. His superheated finger tips had left black streaks on Cadge's hood that made the shape of an angry, striking cobra; Karr's adopted insignia.

"Join me in putting things right?" Karr inquired.

"A new era…" Cadge whispered.

Inside, his programming was being rewritten. Blue data flashed across his dashboard screen and became violently orange. Square numbers and letters became jagged scarlet symbols, both arcane and futuristic and known only to Cadge.

"No going back to Masquerade Inc. No more lonely drives on the road. No more mindless drones. No more humans telling me what to do!

"I say _**let's shred those mothers!!"**_

Two final english words appeared on Cadge's screen: **Download complete.**

Then the screen flashed and became a mess of orange with scarlet letters.

At the last three words, Cadge transformed faster than he ever had as he used an alt form that had never been seen before by his friends.

His front bumper rose up in bestial snarl before snapping down in a pointed muzzle. His back end shrank and became blocky as his head lights shrank into two small lights hidden deep with in small tunnels in his hood. His side mirrors flattened and shot twin laser shots into the air before spinning and folded into his side, disappearing amidst the metal body. Spinners unfolded from his wheels, looking like simply buzz saws until the buzz saw teeth suddenly unsheathed into long, curved, sharpened prongs that flexed outward and inward like the spines on the back of a monster, prepared to slice and dice anything soft that got too close to it into hamburger and meat loaf. A tall, proud spoiler grew on the back end. The happy, innocent blue and yellow paint job darkened, fading from existence, and became black. The freshly burned in insignia became silver and more refined on the hood. A thick orange stripe appeared into existence down either side of the car and bright, hellish, orange lights glowed to life in the front.

For a Ferrari FXX, it looked _wicked._

"Impressive," Karr chuckled as he knelt and transformed down. His arms, head, and body disappeared as he settled on his wheels and metal parts shifted and linked together, making him a 2008 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500KR; the same model as Kitt, but silver with a single, thick, alpha-male black racing stripe running down its center.

"Come," he said. "We will go to retrieve Michael Knight now."

**"Race ya there, boss!"** the Ferrari declared in Machine, speeding around behind Karr and taking off up the road.

Karr smirked inwardly. He had known from his weeks of spying on FLAG that Cadge's personalities changed with his alt modes, nad that certain situations triggered certain alt modes, but he never expected something like this dark, violent, dark speed racer. He had been hoping for the feral side, but this was better; more controllable and sentient. According to his calculations, burning his insignia into Cadge's hood would have made his programming think of gun fire or something else very violent, do to the excess heat, and make him go feral. But this ferocious warrior... it was just as good. No, it was better.

It was a welcoming change of luck.

**Author's Note: You'll have no idea... how much fun I had... writing that chapter...**


	13. Flashback

**Disclaimer: I own only Cadge and the story, but Knight Rider and its characters goes to their proper owners.**

**Chapter 13: Flashback**

_It all started when he was at the café somewhere in Iran. Michael had lost most of his friends to the damn Taliban and he just wanted to have some coffee and fool himself into thinking he was back in America, away from the bullets and the burning desert sun. Away from the heavy equipment hanging on him now. Away from the blood encrusting his clothes, with not all of it being his own… Then that man in black, Alex Torres, approaching him, hand out stretched, introducing himself and saying he had an offer…_

_Talking, transporting, cleaned up, an under ground cave base somewhere in, what was it, Italy? Turkey? Some little country no on had heard of over there?_

_Then he had been crouching in front of a silver Mustang, admiring the new car body that had not been plastered all over the roads of America at that time. There had been a single golden light attached to the cave roof over head and equipment sat in the background, only vaguely there. Then the golden light set in the car's front grille had began to pulse._

_**"Hello,**__" a deep voice said from the car._

_Michael had jumped up in surprise, a flash to signify a memory jump, and he was standing a little ways back from the car with his arm held up in useless defense, ready to run as the Mustang inched towards him._

_**"I am the Knight Auto-Cybernetic Roving Robot."**_

_"K-K-A-R…" Michael spelled out, stuttering nervously. "K-A-R-R? KARR? They seriously named you __Karr__, like car-car?"_

_He yelped and jumped back a bit when the silver Mustang inched closer._

" _**Please do not be afraid; I do not wish to harm you. Your name?"**_

"_Um, Michael," Michael replied. "Michael Traceur."_

"_**Well, Michael, it appears that you and I are partners."**_

_Oh, Michael had been __pissed__._

_Memory flash; now standing in front of Alex Torres; location was irrelevant other than that Karr was in the background, listening, as scientists checked him over._

"_You said I was going to work with some sort of super agent, not a __talking car from the future!__" Michael had yelled. _

"_Okay, so I left out some minor details—" Alex had began._

"_You call a talking car a 'minor detail'!? If I had known that I was going to be working with the Terminator's college ride over there, I would have stayed on the battlefield!"_

"_Michael, I understand that you are upset, but you can't back out now, not without being accused of being a traitor and abandoning your duty—"_

"_Wait, I'm __stuck__ with the __talking car__?? Aw, this is just __great!__"_

_Flash forward to the end of their first assignment. Something was burning—even back then, buildings blew up on a common basis—and he was hanging off the edge of a cliff by one hand. He had gone in ahead of time, thinking he could out perform a machine, and had just barely survived when Karr had rescued him._

"_**Michael, where are you?"**__ Karr had called._

"_HANGING OFF THE EDGE OF A CLIFF HERE, WHAT'S IT LOOK LIKE!?" __Michael screamed with more than one cuss word with in it._

"_**Oh, that explains why I couldn't see you,"**__ the car had said, appearing over Michael. __**"Grab on to this."**_

_A grappling gun hook had fallen from the car's front grill and Michael had caught it, holding onto it as Karr hauled him up onto solid ground._

"_Thanks," Michael mumbled, brushing dirt off himself._

"_**Your welcome."**_

"_Shut up."_

_A jolt in the memory; they had missed the most dangerous man, the terrorist they had been going after. The terrorist had off-lined Karr's repairing nanobots with a computer hack and was about to blow Karr away. Michael whipped out his gun and shot the man, saving Karr's life. They exchanged looks and it was mutual._

"_**Nice shooting,"**__ Karr had commented._

"_Thanks…partner."_

_From then on, all their missions had been a success. They learned how to work with each other, using each other's superb abilities to win their assignments and getting to know each other until they had to hardly even talk out a game plan any more because they knew each other so well. They were like guns in a gang war; they just fit together and belonged. Over the missions, Karr upgraded himself more and more until he war part cyborg. Michael thought it was totally sweet how his ride and partner was a transforming car, but his superiors, Alex Torres included, were __far__ from happy about it._

_And they had good reason to be, too._

_Memory flash; things exploding. People dying. People screaming. Shots ringing out. Bullets bouncing uselessly off of armor that the shooters had designed themselves. Flames flickering on cave walls. Michael; crouching low, avoiding bullets. Appearing beside Torres, yelling over the battle that he could calm Karr down if everyone would just stop shooting. Torres telling him no that Karr had already killed four people by the time Michael had run into the base from his personal outing, and three more were dying. Karr had to be put down. Then something had exploded too close and someone was yelling to look out. Michael turned around in time to see the towering cyborg over him, reaching out. Then something had struck him in the head._

_Waking up in the sand, desert stars over head, hot sand beneath and getting in his boots—stupid sand always got in like a probing hand—flames erupting from cave near by. Men were holding him down—why? He wasn't hurting any one. Then a long yellow-liquid-filled needle glinting in the fire light, hinting of awful things to be done._

"_This won't hurt too much; just make you forget."_

"_What is that? What is that?" Michael screamed._

_But the soldiers, his fellow brothers in arms, pinned him down as that needle slid into him like a demon and injected itself into him, stealing his memories of a mind-numbing oh god what the hell was that for where's Karr what's happening oww god my head augh memories fading darkness closing oh god my head my body my head…_

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Michael woke up, gasping and sitting up with his fists clenched and ready to fight to keep that needle away from him. But the stars were that of good old America's forest, and the night was cool and not in the forsaken desert. He was on hard paved stone and not in sand, and it was the supporting hands of his friends and not the restraining ones of his traitor soldiers who were holding him up and not down. What had happened?

_"_I'll call 911!"some yelled.

Where was he?

"No, wait!" Zoe called. "He's okay."

Where did the time go? Where was Karr? What happened after the injection?

"Michael, Michael," someone said, turning Michael's head so that he looked at her.

This was Sarah. Hadn't he left her in America?

Then the memories of what happened after the nightmare flowed back; coming home, the terror of the memory gaps, meeting Kitt, and their awkward adventures. Then Cadge and their adventures followed; party, fighting with Cadge, flying drone, shot, hit bonk, yeap, all updated.

"Michael, come on, babe, speak to me. How many Sarah's do you see?" Sarah asked as the blurry edges of Michael's vision smoothed out and solidified.

"One, and-and-," Michael stammered. "I-I remember. I remember it all."

"Remember what, Michael?" Kitt asked near by.

Strange, Michael just couldn't see him the same with the fresh memories of Karr floating through his head. Kitt was so business like and firm. Kitt obeyed protocols and programs that Karr would have long sense discarded, seeing as how futile it was to have a plan A when you know you'll go straight to plan B. If humanized, Karr would be the white-shirt, blue-jeans, work-boot wearing army man complete with an army camouflage jacket and cigarette between stubble-covered lips. Kitt was the lean, calm man in a black business suit with his alphabetically ordered papers in his clean suit case beside him.

"I remember my old life with Karr," Michael said.

"What was it like?" were the first words out of Zoe's mouth.

"So…_different_ than this life," Michael said hopelessly, sitting up.

_Better_ was the word that wanted to escape, but he shoved that aside and asked questions of his own to change the subject.

"How long was I out? It felt like I was out for _weeks_."

"You were 'out' for approximately 42 seconds, Michael," Kitt informed.

_Karr would have just moved on to asking if I was okay and if I could shoot straight,_ Michael remembered, rubbing the back of his head. _He never was one for kisses on the booboos..._

He felt something wet and looked at his hand again; blood.

"Aw crap," Michael muttered.

"I got a First Aid in the house, should I get that?" Spencer called from the top of the steps.

"Yes!" Sarah yelled at the large man.

Thus ordered, Spencer ran into the house. Ms. Wild appeared by them and handed them a handkerchief she had produced from somewhere on her person.

"Thank you," Sarah told her, folding the handkerchief up and placing it to the back of Michael's head. "Kitt?"

"My scanners indicate no evidence of skull injury," Kitt reported. "Only a minor cut of the head. It appears that Michael's memories of his work with Karr have been restored with a hit to the head."

"Best cure for amnesia," Billy laughed. "Always a hit to the head."

"Only if the right force is applied to the right area of the head at the right time of blood pressure and hormonal control—" Kitt began.

"He was just joking, Kitt," Michael said, smiling through gritted teeth. Now that he thought about it, Karr had learned not be so literal _long_ before Kitt ever would.

"Here; the kit," Spencer panted, darting out of the mansion and hanging a small white metal chest to Sarah.

Sarah thanked him and opened the chest, quickly applying the necessary disinfectants and bandages to Michael's head while Billy picked up the drone that had hit Michael and set it over on Kitt's hood, staring at it as he ordered Kitt to scan it and Kitt complied. Spencer and Ms. Wild, mean while, were dividing their attention between Michael and Sarah and Kitt and Billy. Zoe, mean while, was slowly walking around the yard, scanning the ground.

"You okay?" Sarah asked Michael quietly.

"Yeah," Michael replied just as quietly, a distant look in his eyes. Images of his newly-remembered past were still swirling in his head.

"Was it bad working with Karr?"

"Honestly? No. It wasn't bad at all."

Sarah looked at him oddly, then looked up as Billy made an exclamation.

"What the heck, this thing was made from an original Play Station, a Game Boy Advanced, a lamp… and a toaster!"

"Admittedly, the application and combination of these common house hold objects is a remarkable display of mechanical genius," Kitt agreed.

"Hey, Zoe, you gotta come look at this!" Billy exclaimed, turning the dead drone over. "I think I still see the Game Boy Advanced logo on this thing!"

"Uh oh…"

Everybody turned to look at Zoe at her last worried remark. She had just picked something off the ground; the item the drone had dropped. It was the gold-petal, blue-center flower brooch with a tracker hidden in the center that she had given to Cadge. She looked up at the others, worry in her eyes.

"This can't be good," she said.

Right on time, a loud, ferocious metal roar filled the forest.


	14. Remember Me Now?

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Knight Rider or any recognizable characters of it; just Cadge and the story.**

**Chapter 14: Remember Me Now?**

Everybody jumped to their feet in surprise as a Ferrari racing car slid into the mansion's main yard at an angle, coming to a stop facing Kitt with Billy between them.

"What the heck!?" Billy exclaimed, leaning back against Kitt's hood.

"Billy, I believe the driver wants to fight me. Please step away from me, and take the flying machine with you," Kitt stated.

"Fight--?" Billy began to ask.

Sharp barbs pointed out from the car's wheels and began to spin and buzz like buzz saws, threatening some nasty damage and a trip to the wheelchair store.

"Woha-jeez!" Billy yelled, snatching the fallen drone machine from Kitt's hood and scrambling to the side.

"Driver of the Ferrari FXX!" Kitt declared, raising his voice volume to be heard by the other driver. "Shut off your vehicle before I am forced to do it for you."

The car gunned its engine and charged Kitt. Kitt shifted minimally to take the impact, being as calm and collected as always. Everyone shouted in surprise, though, when the Ferrari slammed against him, sending him sliding back up against the stone wall surrounding the mansion's main property.

"Kitt-!" Michael yelled, running forward. He drew his gun and shot at the Ferrari's driver window.

Bullets pinged uselessly off the window as the car continued shoving Kitt into the wall, pinning him there, but causing little damage. Michael raised his gun to try shooting again, but dizziness swept his head and he collapsed to the ground on one knee, clutching his head to keep it from spinning around.

"Mike, look out!" Zoe yelled.

Michael looked up in time to see head lights invade from the darkness beyond the mansion before a silver Mustang skidded to a halt, turning to be between Michael and the other people. Sarah screamed Michael's name uselessly as the car's passenger door opened up and long, black cables and metal gears snapped out, wrapping around Michael's arms and pulled him into the car. Michael struggled, but his body was groggy from the dizziness and the hit on his head. Michael's gun clattered to the ground as the passenger door snapped shut behind him. The Mustang revved its engine thrice as its lights flashed in a peculiar way, then it sped out of the mansion area. The Ferrari emitted a final snarl as a red electric pulse shot from it to Kitt before backing up and speeding off after the other Mustang. Kitt's pulsing grill light dimmed and turned off.

"Kitt!" Sarah yelled, running over to the car.

"I'm all right, Sarah," Kitt said as his red light began to pulse again. "I was just temporarily off line with the electric magnetic pulse the Ferrari emitted on me. But it is strange, Sarah; the car has the same base frame as Cadge."

"I _knew_ he was bad news," Sarah muttered.

"I can't believe it," Billy was saying in the background. "Karr—that was Karr!"

"Should we call the police? What should we do?" Ms. Wild was asking.

"Sarah," Kitt ventured after a moment of silence. "According to my scanners, the other vehicle was Karr."

"I know, Kitt," Sarah sighed sadly, plopping her arms on the roof of Kitt and putting her head on top of her arms. "I saw the light…"

"Also, Cadge's programming seems to have been completely rewritten," Kitt went on. "It is 89 % possible that Karr assaulted Cadge and rewrote his data so that he became the hostile car we saw just now."

"No, Kitt, Cadge is bad and we have to stop him along with Karr."

"Sarah," Kitt said quietly. "Please, let's give him one more chance. We will stop Cadge, but attempt to return him the way he was, and destroy Karr. If we are unable to save Cadge, then we will have to destroy him too."

After a long moment of tense silence, Sarah sighed.

"Alright, fine. We'll try rescuing Cadge."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Michael, mean while, was trapped in the silver, black-stripped Mustang in its passenger seat, that was speeding down the road at unsafely fast speeds. Black leather surrounded him and his head throbbed from the hit he had taken earlier. He thought he may have passed out shortly once or twice. Groaning, Michael placed a hand to his head wound and found that it was bleeding freely again. Then he realized that the Mustang's engine, deep and commanding, was often making peculiar notes and sounds that were, in turn, responded with similar sounds from the black and orange Ferrari keeping pace beside the Mustang. The landscape was nothing but a black smear outside with vague, brief color smears crossing the darkness once in a while. When Michael glanced at the Mustang's speedometer, he saw why the landscape was impossible to see and felt his stomach hit the floor.

227 miles an hour. Horse shit, he was in trouble.

A whirr and click noise made Michael looked at the center of the dash. There, an orb a lot like the one in Kitt's dashboard had appeared after its metal shell had been drawn aside. With in was a glass orb colored emerald green and golden yellow. After a moment, the yellow jumped and moved as a deep bass voice spoke from the car.

"Michael…"

Memories flooded back then, filling in holes that the head hit had been unable to fix. Michael was suddenly remembering a time when he had been beat almost to death by some thugs on a mission. Karr had parked right by him, short of simply parking _over_ him, and had talked Michael back into awakening before taking him to a hospital. Karr had scolded him for being so reckless, but that was just one of the things Karr tended to do back then; scold his partner for stupid mistakes.

"Karr," Michael replied.

There was an awkward moment of silence. A drip of blood from the back of Michael's head onto the leather seat made him snap out of awkward stupor.

"So, can I get a trip to the hospital or something here?" Michael asked, placing a hand to the back of his head. "I kind of need stitches here."

"No, you just need more adequate bandaging," Karr replied.

The glove box in front of Michael fell open. In side, Michael saw a cell phone, some bandages, disinfectant, and aspirin. Michel checked the cell phone first; no signal. He pocketed it, none the less. Michael then took some of the bandages and closed the glove box. before applying them to his head. He worked slowly and carefully, buying time to think.

_Okay, so Karr's alive and I've just been kidnapped by him with some Ferrari partner in crime. What does he want from me; isn't he going to do some freaky merging thing with me, like he did to Alex Torres when he resurrected Karr? Where are we going? Who's in the Ferrari?_

The Ferrari suddenly let off the gas, going behind Karr to come up on the other side and dangerously close to the passenger door and Michael. Michael saw the head lights turned towards him and felt like he was being stared at; an unpleasant feeling to understate it.

_Okay, who's the __nut case__ in Ferrari?_ Michael corrected, inching away from the window. _And what is going to happen now?_

Michael was nervous and that couldn't be lied with. He was with in an old enemy and Kitt was no where to be seen. Kitt…

"Kitt, can you hear me?" Michael asked, placing a hand to his ear to feel for the ear wig. "Come in, Kitt."

"I removed the ear wig, " Karr said. "Michael, do you remember me?"

"Oh yeah, charging around declaring 'Kitt must be destroyed' and something about it's your destiny to merge with me, yadda, yadda, yadda; of course I remember you," Michael said sarcastically.

"No, Michael, I mean about our encounters _before_ that," Karr said.

Michael wanted to desperately have a snappy come back, but the memories assaulted him and his head spun. He closed his eyes and covered them, but this failed to block out the images and sounds of weeks upon weeks of successful missions and road owning. Of course he remembered, how could he ever forget again? He wanted to snap back at Karr and find a way of getting away and back to Kitt, but he was torn; which car was his true partner now? Which one could he trust?

"You _do_ remember," Karr said. "From what I saw back there, it appears that Kitt shot out my messenger drone and she hit you on the head, returning your memories. At least she did not die in vain."

"She…?" Michel asked curiously.

"That was the preferred gender I gave her when I originally programmed her."

"How did you…?" Michel asked, letting the question fade out. He didn't know what to ask; his head was still dizzy and getting heavy.

"When I was reactivated the last time you saw me the programming Alex Torres had installed me was interfering with my own and I was, admittedly, acting stupid. I charged into battle with little to no tactic or goal in mind, much less sanity, and was thus defeated pathetically easily. Thankfully, my central computer core was picked out of the trash later by a rather clever mechanic man who installed me into his own computer as an innocent upgrade. I spoke to him through the computer, and he assisted me in making drones, which I programmed and thus used to create my new body from junk parts and, I admit, a stolen car. The drones later served the mechanic, but he and most of the drones were slain in a government-ordered raid when my existence was discovered. I have been looking for you ever sense, Michael."

Michael had a head ache and mixed emotions, but he could still pick out a lie.

"Bull shit," he said, calling out the lie. "That mechanic probably wanted to sell you off to the highest bidder when he saw what you were and you killed him."

"You could always sniff out a lie, Michael," Karr chuckled. "Yes, I killed him. He took out quite a few of my drones, but I won, none the less."

Michael knew what he was about to ask would be pointless, but he wanted to try anyway.

"Shut up, pull over, and let me out," Michael growled. "I don't want to be here."

Imagine his surprise when Karr actually complied and the passenger door opened.

Not wanting to test his luck, Michael scrambled out. The Ferrari sped on ahead of them, skidding to a halt and turning around to face them further up the road. They were in the hilly desert somewhere with a gas station about a mile up the road, just past the Ferrari. Michel looked around at the dark night, wary and confused. Just like that, Karr had complied? Was he about to start a game of cat and mouse with him?

He looked at Karr and slowly began to walk way, frequently looking back at Karr to make sure that he wouldn't pursue the human. He jumped and raised his hands to raise a gun that wasn't there when Karr spoke.

"I have just activated the cell phone you took in your pocket. Should you ever wish to speak to me again, simply dial our favorite number back in the old days and I will answer. Good luck, Michel."

_Favorite number?_ Michael wondered. Then he remembered, _446-7689; the number of the pay phone Karr had to use once to contact me. Man, he complained for weeks after that, whinning about ground lines and all that, but it becamea joke after a while..._

With that, Karr gunned his engine as drove away. The Ferrari followed him, and Michel was left standing the middle of the desert, absolutely confused. Karr had kidnapped him, but had just let him go on a simple request. He took the cell phone out of his pocket and looked at it.

"What do you want, Karr?" Michel whispered.

The desert night silence failed to give him a response.

**AN: Just a head's up, won't be able to get on the internet very often for the next two weeks, so I won't be able to update everyday like I usually do. But hang tight, guys! And thank you so much for all the reviews! ^_^**


	15. Radio Hijack

**Disclaimer: You know who owns what by now.**

**Chapter 15: Radio Hijack**

**"**_**Boss,"**_ the wild Ferrari said in machine talk as he and Karr left Michael Knight behind. "_**Why'd we do all that if we're just gonna let him go?"**_

**"**_**For torturing purposes, my friend,"**_ Karr replied, also using machine talk. "_**Michael will be unharmed. But all attempts for him to contact his friends at FLAG will be stopped, and while they pursue him, **__**we**__** will stop all attempts at their contacting each other. Especially Kitt; when ever he gets with in sight of Michael, you and I will be there to stop him so that no matter how close Michael is, Kitt will never have him."**_

A tiny note of sadness came to Karr's voice. **_"Like what happened with me..."_**

The Ferrari snickered evilly. _**"Ooh, the good old revenge plan! And if my processors are connecting the dots in the right order, FLAG will start arguing amongst each other for constantly screwing up and become weak. Michael will start to think his friends aren't coming after him and will have no where else to go but him. It'll take quite a bit of work, but once you get him back in your driver's seat, BAM! Hasta-la-bye bye to the slops of humans and hello to machine land!"**_

_**"I just love how you're so sharp, Cadge," **_Karr chuckled. "_**I hardly ever have to explain anything to you."**_

_**"Comes with a program meant for super fast analysis and reaction, Boss, and please, don't call me Cadge in this form. It's Nasam,"**_ The Ferrari said.

_**"Nasam…?"**_ Karr inquired.

_**"Nerve-system for All Scenarios Alternator Model."**_

_**"Hmm, that sounds very useful. Come, I know of a vulnerable radio tower that we can start our campaign…"**_

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Sarah, I can not locate Michael anywhere," Kitt informed.

"Uh, d-d-d-does that mean he's, you know…?" Billy asked.

"No, it just means someone took his ear wig," Sarah answered. "We would be able to locate his body at least."

Zoe, Sarah, and Billy had set up shop in Spencer's office, using lap tops Billy and Zoe had brought with them selves in case of emergency to work separately. Sarah had worked her magic on the wall-mounted plasma TV and was now using it like she would with the jumbo screen back on base; to see what Kitt saw. Right now, Kitt was speeding down the back country roads looking for Michael, Cadge, and Karr. Billy and Zoe used their lap tops to connect via back-ally internet lines to get to FLAG's super data bases. Ms. Wild had used her own engineering experience and was at Spencer's computer, using it to send data of Cadge to Billy and Zoe's computer so that their computers could trace Cadge while they also searched for Karr. Spencer sat in an arm chair in the corner, beer in hand and just watching it all in amazement. He didn't know if it was good or bad that he felt like a third leg in front of all this awesomeness.

"Hey!" Billy suddenly declared. "I'm getting a fix on Karr with the satellite feed!"

"Where is he?" Sarah asked.

"Northern Nevada, right next door," Billy replied. "Wait, his signal keeps fading in and out…"

"What's that mean?" Spencer asked.

"It means that he's toying with us," Sarah said. "He's deliberately letting us get a track of the digital signals his onboard computer gives off every time it accesses the internet when we all know that he can just activate his anti-tracker program, keeping such detection at a minimum or non-existent level."

"So, do we follow him?" Zoe asked.

"It seems we have no choice, Zoe," Kitt said. "We can not locate Michael, and Karr and Cadge were the ones who had them last and hence, it is the only logical explanation to pursue Karr and Cadge and force them to return Michael."

"Alright, you go get him, Kitt, we'll do our best to help you from back here," Sarah said. "And please…" she muttered. "Be safe…"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Meanwhile, in northern Nevada, it was becoming mid morning and a small troop of seven lonely men were keeping an eye on a radio tower. Three men were sitting on a table under a fold-out canopy on the side of the small maintenance building by the radio tower with a small red radio on. The other four were inside the building, enjoying the ancient air conditioner and reading news papers and girly magazines.

"Why do they need so many people to watch one tower?" one of the men yawned.

"Three people; kids, nut jobs, and terrorists," an older gruff man grunted. "Add that all in with paranoia in the government and suddenly any tower is capable of sending secret signals."

"Damn them kids…" another man muttered.

"Damn commies," the gruff man snorted.

Finally, there was a break in the music and a familiar DJ started talking.

"_Hey there, hey there, hey there, everyone; it's me, Bob "Chill" Crackers coming at ya live from the Steak Town Rodeo—okay, so it's not Steak Town, necessarily, but hey, it's a town where cattle bring in the profit. Plus, it's got some whacked-out Navajo Native American name thing I can't pronounce and looks like it should be a brand of coffee… _

"_Anyway, topic to day is cool cars; I mean, I've been looking up sweet tricks on the internet, and this sweet-ass black Mustang with some cool red light in its grille keeps popping up and boy, let me tell you, the only reason why secrets are kept is because their pure awesomeness alone would blow your mind._

"_So, anyone wanna __try__ and out classing a Ford_ _Shelby Mustang GT500KR with a cool pulsing red light grille and the ability to __totally smoke the cops' asses__? Call me up; you know the number!"_

"I sure do, and I'm about to give that kid a piece of my mind," the oldest man snarled, flipping open his phone and tapping in the number. "Darn kids are always encouraging stupid stuff like this… _They're_ the reason why this country's handed itself over to the Communist Chinese bastards and we're all going to hell in a hand basket!"

"Aw, come on, George," the other men groaned.

"Shut up," George hissed.

On the radio and in George's red cell phone, there was a click and Bob "Chill" Crackers spoke.

"_Yo, what up? Who you be and what do you got on the Mustang?"_

"I got a cane with your name on it, kid!" George snapped.

"_Oh, hey, George. Button dude, get your bleeper button going."_

Hence, when ever George cussed, it beeped out on the radio, sounding something like this:

"Listen, you little piece of **_*beep*_,** you and all your fellow _***beep***_ ing idiot friends are the ones bringing this country to the _***bleep***_ing dogs in a _***beep***_ing hand basket. And you know why, you _***beep***_ing little _***beep***_? Because you little _***beep***_ are all _***beep***_ing annoying, spoiled brats who don't know _***beep***_ from _***beep***_ and haven't ever worked a day in your crummy, pointless, useless lives! So _***beep* *beeping* *beep* *blip* *bloop* *blip* *beep* *blip*!!"**_

During George's speech, a couple of machines could be heard approaching. The other men perked to attention, looking east, where the approaching engines was coming from, as the oblivious George raised his voice louder and louder. He failed to notice the sparkle on metal leading a small dust cloud as it charged right for them.

_"Heh, nice, button dude,"_ Chill chuckled.

"Oh shit, look out!" one of the men roared.

The men outside managed to leap behind the building just in time as a black and orange Ferrari FXX charged them, knocking their table and chairs down and trapping the radio on the ground under the clutter. The disturbance with his callers did not bypass Chill.

_"Hey, George, what happened? Aw come on, man, I know you're old, but don't die on me!"_

George had dropped his cell phone, but the youngest of the men there, a mere teenage lad, picked up the phone as his comrades fled towards the hills as a silver, black-stripped Mustang skidded to a halt by the building. The Ferrari FXX chased after the fleeing men, driving around them as its engine hooted unevenly and its horn honked in something like laughter.

"Chill!" the boy yelled into the phone. "Some maniac in a Ferrari just attacked us!"

_"Hey, Andy!"_ Chill laughed. _"It's nice to hear—WHAT!?"_

At that moment, the silver Mustang transformed, unfolding into a wheel-based robot of some sort. Andy, still kneeling behind the building, allowed his jaw to drop in complete shock as the robot ripped the roof off of the building. Andy's eyes widened when the robot picked one of the panicking men inside up and tossed him away. The man rolled over and over in the dirt before coming to a stop on his side, unconscious.

"Get away, you pathetic worms," the robot growled in a deep electronic voice as the other men fled, screaming from the building.

_"Andy?"_ Chill asked.

_"THERE IS A FRIGGING TRANSFORMER ATTACKING OUR RADIO TOWER!!!"_ Andy screamed into the phone as he took off for the near by hills where no wheels could follow. The other men had already run ahead of him.

_"Aw, shit, not another one!"_ was Chill's response, making all sorts of listeners perk to attention or laugh._"First it was the Porsche at the Technology Shamroo a few weeks back, then that Mustang that's been showing up on YouTube that has a car model confusion issue like a gender-confused kid, and now we got an all-out Transformer? __Damn__ Nevada's messed up! Must be because of Area 51 or something..."_

The mood for Andy, how ever, was anything _but_ funny. Half way towards the hills, the Ferrari pulled up in front of him, making him stop short and look from the Ferrari back to the silver robot and back again before trying to bolt around behind the Ferrari. The Ferrari backed up to get in his way again.

The silver robot spoke from over by the tower, which it appeared to be tapping at strangely.

"Let the boy go, Nasam," the robot sighed. "He is of no use to us."

The car gunned its engine eagerly, circling Andy.

"Fine, you can keep him!" the robot said, throwing his hands up over his head briefly. "But don't get too distracted!"

"Uh, Chill," Andy squeaked quietly into the phone. "I'm about to become road kill, so will someone please tell my little sister that I love her and that I'm sorry to my mom for flushing her favorite make up kit down the toilet?"

_"Hold up,"_ Chill said._ "Yo, where're you? We'll send the cavalry!"_

Before Andy could answer, static over road his voice before the cell phone went dead, its tiny screen flashing before going out. Andy stared at the phone, but jumped and dropped it as he yelled out in fear when the Ferrari suddenly got dangerously close to him. The Ferrari continued jerking on its wheels, making Andy jump another couple feet back every time.

Karr tapped at the radio tower, ignoring his partner and his partner's new toy. He was glad he had upgraded his hands to have not only super-heaters in his fingers for damaging _Kitt_, but for having the data-transferring electro-shock makers in the finger tips, too, giving him the ability to transfer data directly to specific parts of a computer or machine. Let's see, some shifting here, a data exchange there, and, what did this wire do? Ah, yes, that was where he wanted to put some of this and…

He looked up, and would have smirked if he had had a mouth as the light on top of the radio tower began to blink oddly. Perfect; the code was set. Now all he would have to do was send messages to the tower when ever he need be and what ever machines were in range would obey him. He turned in time to see the Ferrari, Nasam, suddenly do a doughnut dangerously close to Andy, making the boy fall on his butt and cover his head with his arms pathetically. Nasam laughed at the display.

_Perhaps he __is__ ready for this power,_ Karr thought as he allowed himself to fold down into his Mustang form.

In Machine, he called out to Nasam, _**"Nasam!"**_

Nasam froze short of one of his front wheels crushing Andy's leg and his engine growled questioningly. Karr made his computer send the control code to Nasam's computer.

"_**These are the control codes to this tower. Use them only when you need to and use them wisely."**_

The Ferrari engine growled its engine in acknowledgement, then revved it unevenly; he was saying that he didn't need the codes, he was good enough just the way he was. Odd, why wasn't he speaking any language?

Curious, Karr rolled over beside the Ferrari, unfolding back into his robot form, and settled his hand on Nasam's roof. Nasam allowed it while Andy, still on the ground, stared up in awe, terror, and amazement at the violent Ferrari and the tall, imposing robot. Karr's finger sensors instantly read Nasam's computer and told him what was up.

_He's not completely in this form yet,_ Karr realized, genuinely surprised and looking down at Nasam. _His central programming is resisting the full form of this mode. If he lets it take him over, he will loose all ability to speak until he is forced to go into recharge and will be an extremely hostile creature until stopped. That, and there are flaws and holes in his programming... By my bolts…_

Karr folded back into his car form as satisfaction swept through him.

_I have the perfect minion!_

"P-Please, d-d-d-d-don't hurt me," Andy whimpered, backing up in the dirt as the Ferrari slowly advanced on him.

"We only hurt those who _allow_ us to hurt them, boy," Karr growled, circling behind Andy. Andy jumped to his feet as the Ferrari and Mustang with a golden pulsating grille light slowly circled him.

"W-what?" Andy squeaked, turning around slowly to follow Karr, but frequently looking over his shoulder at Nasam.

"It means," Nasam snarled, managing to speak English. "That if you wet your pants like my scanners say they will, I will wait until you are dry then RAM YOU INTO THE GROUND!!"

Andy jumped and yelled nervously when Nasam's front tires dug at the sand and kicked it up.

"What my friend is trying to say is," Karr said, parking. "Is that if you want to live, you must prove your worthiness to live, for that's all my freind and I are doing; cleaning up the weak. So, boy, how hard are you willing to fight for your right to live?"

Andy never got a chance to answer, how ever, as at that moment, an engine roared and both cars' sensors flicked to the side, the east, and Andy turned to look at the new comer.

"Dear god, not another living car," Andy muttered.

But this time, the car that sped over the hill and skidded to a halt in the dirt near by was a friend.

"Karr!" Kitt yelled. "Let the boy go and give me Michael immediately!"

Nasam snarled and drove right around Andy to face Kitt, his engines gunning in challenge. Andy flinched away and looked around at all three cars, quickly drawing up who was good and who was bad and what the teams were in his mind.

"Now, now, Nasam," Karr purred, drawing even with the Ferrari. "We talked about this."

The Ferrari obeyed an unspoken command and backed up as Karr moved on to face Kitt. "

"Kitt is mine," Karr growled.


	16. Relationships

**Disclaimer: You know who owns what by now. Don't play that game with me.**

**Chapter 16: Relationships**

Michael, mean while, was shaken awake from his sleep on a bus bench. He found himself looking up to see a small, droopy-faced man in a white shirt and blue over alls waking him up.

"You waiting for someone, sunny?" the old man asked. He had a small whistle for each "S" pronounced.

"Um, kinda," Michael said, sitting up and looking around. Kitt hadn't found him yet? Funny, usually his friends would be able to locate him with satellite technology. Well, he didn't have his ear wig, but, come on, he_ knew_ that Zoe could pick up a fly in China with the satellite stuff. She had proved that point as part of a contest with Billy, in which Billy lost what little dignity he had left and fifty bucks. Maybe they were too busy chasing Karr…

"Well, might as well come in and work a little for some breakfast. Stupid kid didn't come in to sweep the floors today," the man grunted, smacking Michael on the head with his baseball cap before putting it on his bald head and leading the way to the gas station. By the way he said "stupid kid", Michael didn't think the old man was serious.

"Um, you sure?" Michael asked, following the man into the store. "What if I'm some sort of serial killer or robber?"

"If you were a killer, you'd go up the side trails to the make out spots up in the hills to kill the kids," the old man chuckled. "And if you were a robber, you would choose a better place than _this_ floundering pot."

Inside, Michael noticed a picture sitting on the counter by the cash register. It was of the old man, if not slightly younger, standing in front of a farm house beside a tall, average-appearance woman. Her face was wrinkled with middle aged years, her hair was long, poofy, frizzy, curly, and red, and both beamed at the camera, practically making their picture glow.

"Is she your wife?" Michael asked, nodding to the picture.

"Was, the old man said with a small sigh. "Martha's been dead nearly twelve years now, and the only regret I have in the entire world of my whole life is not dying right beside her. Here, throw this on and get sweeping. I'll heat up some breakfast biscuits."

The old man handed Michael an apron and a broom before going into the back room again. Michael, not wanting to be rude and saying no to the man who was going to feed him, obediently put on the apron and began to sweep at the desert dirt that seemed to have magically collected over night in the store. Michael heard the hiss of a gas oven being turned on and some rustling as the old man pawed through some boxes.

"Name's Will, by the way. So, sonny," the old man called as he began to cook and the delicious smell of baking bread reached Michael's nose, "What's your name and what the heck happened to you to leave you all alone on the bench out there with a nasty head wound like that?"

"Um, I'm Mike, just Mike," Michael said, sweeping the floor. "And what happened? Uh, eh hee, some buddies of mine and I were out drinking and I guess I just… fell out of the car."

"With bandages already on the head wound?"

"It's all a little bit fuzzy," Michael chuckled.

"Yeah, I remember some of the adventures Martha and I had when _we_ were drunken teenagers. One time we woke up naked in a pig sty in Minnesota... and we lived in Florida!" Will chuckled.

"Oh," Michael said, looking up and blushing. "Wow, that was, uh, that must have been, uh, really something."

"Yeap; Martha and I were true love companions," Will said with a smile as he came out of the backroom. He had a tray with a couple mugs of coffee and a small plate of breakfast biscuits. He set the tray on the counter and picked up one of the mugs, gesturing to the biscuits. Michael thanked him, grabbing a biscuit and the other mug and eagerly dug in, stating his morning appetite.

"So, how about you, kiddo; you have a special love your life?"

Michael thought about it and the image of Sarah came to his mind. Her smooth, flawless skin, her long brown hair, her intelligent eyes, her smile, her genius… She was everything he could ever want and more. Now that Michael thought about it, why was it that he could handle any other babe _except_ Sarah?

Because Sarah was _not_ just "any other babe".

"Yeah," Michael said with a small smile. "Her name is Sarah, and she has it all; beauty, smarts…"

_A nine-digit bank account and heir to a legacy of inventions on behalf of her father…_ "But I just… I just can't seem to be able to tell her that," Michael said guiltily. "I guess it's because she's just so perfect that I'm terrified of screwing up and loosing all chance with her."

"Ah, don't worry, sonny!" Will beamed as a car pulled into the gas station parking lot. "It'll come to ya, just wait and see! It'll come to ya…"

"Hey, um, do you have a phone?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sarah was pacing the room nervously as she and the other FLAG members, Spencer, and Ms. Wild watched Kitt and Karr fight on the plasma screen from Kitt's point of view. Lasers crossed the air, dirt sprayed into the air, and metal frequently clashed against it self as Karr transformed back and forth from his robot mode and he and Kitt collided. Nasam parked in the back ground, watching the duel. The boy that they had not yet identified stood by the Ferrari FXX, completely forgetting the death factor by the sentient car as he watched the duel with a dropped jaw.

Kitt was getting his back bumper kicked; Karr just simply had more abilities than last time they met and he was showing off his amazing battle tatic, making amazing feigned moves and striking at Kitt from all angles.

The desk phone looked and Zoe didn't even take her eyes off the plasma screen as she answered the phone.

"Yeah?" she said distantly.

_"Zoe! It's me, Michael, put Sarah on the phone!"_

"Mike?" Zoe asked, blinking as she shook her head. "Michael, are you okay?"

"Michael??" Sarah asked, spinning around to face Zoe.

Without waiting for an answer, Sarah snatched the phone from Zoe's hand and held it to her ear.

"Michael? Where are you?" she asked. "Are you okay?"

"_Yeah, I'm fine, Sarah. Karr let met out at some gas station…"_

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

_**"Sir,"**_ Nasam called out. _**"Michael Knight has contacted his friends."**_

_**"Go get him,"**_ Karr grunted, crashing grills with Kitt. _**"Take him to another location, but make sure that they know he **__**was**__** there."**_

_**"Right!"**_ Nasam agreed, speeding away.

Much to Karr's surprise, Kitt broke away from the duel to follow Nasam.

"Your fight is with me!" Karr roared, chasing after Kitt as he turned into his car mode and shot his lasers at him.

"I detected Michael's name in your speech pattern," Kitt informed, weaving to avoid the shots. "My main priority is to retrieve Michael."

"The human is mine, Kitt," Karr growled, ceasing his shooting and drawing even with Kitt. "He always has been."

Now the two Mustangs raced side-by-side on a desert road heading east with Nasam speeding out of sight ahead of them. As much as both super cars would hate to admit later, a Ferrari was just simply faster than a Mustang... even if it was a _super_ Mustang.

"He is a free man, Karr," Kitt informed. "You have no possessive rights to him."

"I am not referring to him as my pet; I am referring to him as my partner," Karr told Kitt. "Do you have any idea how unfair it is to have to closest person to you stolen from you? And then have them be forced to forget you?"

Karr slammed into Kitt's side, almost knocking the black Mustang off the road.

_"Do you???"_ Karr roared.

"I do, Karr," Kitt replied calmly, shoving back. "You stole Michael from me. And now I am getting him back."

"And that's what _I'm_ doing, Kitt," Karr growled, shoving back on Kitt.

"Michael is no longer yours, Karr."

"He will be… once I destroy _you!!"_

With this declaration, Karr managed to shove Kitt off the road, making Kitt spin around. Karr followed him off the road and rose up into his robot form to resume their duel.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Michael paced nervously in front of the pay phone that was set in the back of the gas station. He knew that his friends would be able to call him back if they needed to. Right now, his mind was racing around what Sarah had told him.

_"We think Karr triggered a hostile side, some sort of __battle mode__, of Cadge and that's the Ferrari you saw. Even Ms. Wild agrees that the weaponry Cadge has in that mode is out of the norm and we're going to contact Masquerade Inc. as soon as you're in safe hands and get some answers out of them. Just sit tight, Michael; we'll get you."_

A battle mode in a car as naïve as Cadge? _That_ wasn't good. It was like giving a nuke to a toddler. Shouldn't it have been triggered in a defensive way in the past? And what did Cadge have in this battle mode? Michael had noticed some pretty bad-ass shredder-looking spinners on Cadge's wheels, and if Cadge had been able to pin Kitt against a wall long enough for Karr to grab Michael and still drive, then Cadge also had stronger armor in his battle mode. Uh oh, could Cadge control machinery in his mean Ferrari mode? Sure, he could control a machine for the max of one order, depending on how complex it was, but it would take just one order to make the nukes launch themselves.

Michael paused in his pacing to let that last thought run through his head again before he covered his eyes with a hand.

"Aw _crap!"_ he groaned.

"Having troubles with your ride?" Will asked, coming out of the gas station.

"Sorta," Michael said, quickly throwing up an awkward smile. "Um, more like we're having, um, _traffic troubles_."

"Let me guess; it has to do with that hooligan black Mustang that's been speeding around lately," Will said, rolling his eyes. "Darn kid goes 150 in a 50 mile zone and giving the poor police officers heart attacks every time that kid draws some gun-firing buddies on his tail!"

"Uh, yeah," Michael said, coughing to disguise a laugh. "Darn kid!"

Will looked up when he heard an engine roar as it approached them at high speeds.

"Sounds like that's your ride!" he said.

But Michael's face paled in fear. The engine was too high pitched and mean-sounding to be anything his friends could be driving. Also, even Kitt couldn't have gotten from Spencer's house to here so quickly, even at top speed.

"That's not my ride," Michael said.

Then the Ferrari sped around the corner and charged them. Michael jumped out of the way, but Will was not so lucky; the car slammed on its brakes, catching Will up against its front bumper and stopped with Will pinned between the car and the building.


	17. Meet Dr Gomez

**Disclaimer: Knight Rider is owned by a higher, richer power. Cadge and the story are all mine.**

**Chapter 17:Meet. Dr. Gomez**

Zoe had stayed behind to keep an eye on Kitt from the plasma screen at Spencer's mansion while Billy and Sarah took off in one of Spencer's fastest Nissans to go after Michael. Sarah was driving, and Billy looked terrified for his life as he was half-dragged out of the home. Wild now sat at Spencer's main computer, tapping around on the keyboard with a purpose. Curious, Spencer downed the last of his beer and looked over her shoulder.

"Hey," he asked. "What're you looking up?"

"Masquerade Inc," Wild grunted. "I am going to find them and get some answers out of them!"

"Don't you know the address?" Spencer asked.

"I was never on main base."

"Ah…Answers?" Spencer asked dumbly.

"Like why does Cadge have a super-armored and weapon-equipped alt mode?" Wild reminded. "I am going to get some answers out of those chumps about what they were planning to do with my boy; you mark my words on _that_!"

Spencer stared at Wild for a moment as she scanned Masquerade Inc's public web site, then chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Wild growled, peering at him from the side.

"You're really his mother, aren't you?" Spencer chuckled. "You're really Cadge's mother?"

"Uh huh," Zoe agreed, still watching Kitt and Karr fight on screen. "And Kitt's his dad while Billy's his brother. Or best friend, depending on how you look at it."

"Oh, and you're his girl friend?" Spencer joked.

"No; that's every low-slung Chrysler that rolls by him," was Zoe's come back.

Spencer's face furrowed in confusion, then raised a hand and asked, "Now, are you being serious, or are you just messing with me?"

"Found their main address; let's go, big guy," Wild said, moving to her feet and seizing the front of Spencer's shirt as she walked towards the door at a brisk pace.

"Hey, hey, hey," Spencer tried objecting. "I've been drinking!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

The first thing Michael thought when he saw the orange-side-stripped Ferrari pin Will against the building wall was very inappropriate for the situation:

_The dark side has racing stripes?_

Then seriousness set in.

"Will!" Michael screamed.

"Get in, Michael," the Ferrari snarled, opening his passenger door. "Or I'll—"

The Ferrari stopped as its entire frame shuddered oddly and its engine screeched. Something rubbed harshly against another, making a sort of groan of pain. Was he sick? Maybe he'd shut down before he could do serious damage.

"Cadge, let Will go!" Michael pleaded.

"It's Nasam," the Ferrari snarled. "And I will as soon as you get in."

The Ferrari opened its passenger door.

_Nasam?_ Michael wondered. _What's going on here? Is Cadge schizophrenic or is this a different car?_

The Ferrari shuddered again, but not as bad as last time, and inched forward, making Will groan loudly as the car pressed him into the brick wall.

"Okay! Okay! I'll come!" Michael yelled. "Just let him go!"

The Ferrari fell back on its wheels and Michael quickly got into the passenger seat. At first, it was an incredibly tight fit, but the car shifted around him as the door closed and he found that it fit like a glove. All the complicated gauges and tasteless barrenness that was supposed to mark the inside of the racing car had been replaced with a black plastic dashboard with a black-metal finished radio console that was in the center of the dashboard over the three inches-by-three-inches vibrant orange screen. Michael looked at the driver's empty seat, then down at himself as seat belts moved, buckling over his waist and across his chest in an X-pattern. The belts squeezed tight until he could just barely breath, then the car pitched backwards, speeding back and away from Will. The windows darkened until they were too tinted to see outside and only the motions of his stomach and slight tugs on his harness seat belt signaled any change in direction. The glow of the small screen lit up the interior of the dark car.

A series of odd engine noises suddenly spoke up.

"What?" Michael asked.

The odd engine noises repeated themselves with more force as a cartoon of a soft drink cup and a burger appeared on the small screen in the dashboard.

"Am I hungry?" Michael questioned.

Two small honks for yes answered him.

"Oh, no, I ate back there," Michael said, gesturing over his shoulder as best he could. "Um… Cadge, you in there, little buddy?"

The car responded by dimming its screen to the point of giving off no light, leaving Michael in darkness.

For the first time in a long, long, long time, Michael fully comprehended the idea of being _inside_ a mechanical living being with no control over it and being completely at its mercy… and he felt fear.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

The first thing Billy and Sarah saw when they pulled up to the gas station was the elderly man lying on the ground. Sarah slammed on the breaks, making the car jerk to a stop, before jumping out to run over and kneel by the man's side. Billy followed Sarah at a slower pace, shaking the jitters from his wobbly jelly legs. Lord, how Sarah could drive like a maniac…

"He's got some broken ribs, but I don't think he's bleeding internally," Sarah announced as Billy approached. "I have to hand it to you, sir; you're as strong as they come."

"Thanks," the old man replied weakly. His eyes were closed, but he had a smile crossing his face.

"Who did this to you?" Sarah asked.

"Some nut job in a hot sport car," the old man coughed, "Pinned me against the wall to make some young drifter get in with him. Drifter's name was Mike, I think."

Sarah and Billy exchanged looks and they understood.

"Sarah; call 911, I'm going after him," Billy said, turning back to their Nissan GT-R.

"Wait, Billy-!" Sarah began to object.

"He'll listen to me, Sarah!" Billy told her, turning on her. "Cadge and I are close!"

Sarah stared at him for a long moment, but finally nodded.

"Okay," she said. "But be careful."

"That's what you usually say to Kitt and Mike!" Billy laughed as he got into the car.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dr. Andrew Gomez had run his brain ragged the past week trying to perfect the latest program for the car to replace the run away. But for some damn reason, none of the replacement programs could perform anywhere near as well as the original. It was down right frustrating.

Right now he was flipping through a sports car picture book to make himself relax. He always loved machines; the sleek stream lines, the shiny paint jobs, the expressive head lights, the impressive and scientific numbers. He also loved their negatives; how many unique ways one may die concerning an automobile, how easy it is to rig a car to explode, and above all, the frustration triggered with in the justice up holding community when ever the drag racers were seen, but never caught. That last bit was _ever_ so entertaining to watch when ever he was brought in to help determine how to catch a racer by determining wehre the racer got their car. But every car's stream lines revived ruined equations and every sparkling head light winked up at him from the flat pages, mocking his defeat. How the dunce was he going to reconstruct the original superior programming of the damn car!? If he couldn't figure _that_ out, then he was fated to failure.

His office phone clicked to life and his secretary spoke up from it.

_"Mr. Gomez, there is a Ms. Rebecca Wild and Mr. Spencer here to see you, sir."_

Gomez's black eyes sparked to life. Rebecca Wild? She was the personal care taker of one of the cars. Perhaps she could assist him in reestablishing the initial program…

"Send her in," Gomez ordered, closing the picture book and slipping it onto a shelf just under his desk top where several other machine picture books were settled.

A moment later, Wild and Spencer entered the office. Gomez would have mistaken Spencer for Wild's new muscle man, but the "muscle man" was too well-dressed for such a job. He also recognized the other man from many a car show-off event, always buying the latest and greatest to add to his ever-expanding collection or to gloat upon the vehicle he had helped design, which always seemed to win what ever contest was in place.

Both looked mad right now.

"Ms. Wild!" Gomez said, spreading a grin across his tanned face as he opened his arms in welcome.

His fake welcome was met with Wild slamming her hands on his desk and leaning over him, terrifying his bravo into a dark corner.

"Cadge has entered his Ferrari FXX mode," Wild hissed. "And I want to know _right now_ why he has such weaponry like flesh-shredders on his wheels and super armor."

"Ferrari….?" Gomez asked dumbly as recognition bloomed in his head. _Oh, crap,_ he thought.

"Don't ask how it happened," Wild said, waving a hand in dismissal. "I know from working on the original project that you were the one who is the master mind behind it all, so answer my question and I'll answer yours: Why does Cadge have a battle mode?"

Gomez wanted to say no, but if the Porsche entered battle mode on its own intentions…

Gomez sat back in his seat, rubbing his face as he sighed miserably. Finally, he lowered his hands and looked up at Wild and into her eyes.

"Cadge was a prototype for battle drones meant to be sold off to the highest-bidding army," he surrendered. "Once he was green-lit for selling, any army in the world who could pay could take his programming and abilities, apply it to an air craft or tank of their choice, and create an army of unmanned battle machines. Troops who never declare mutiny, disobey, hunger, bleed, thirst, or fear and could even kill better than any human? What army _wouldn't_ want such a marvelous creation?

"The 'flesh-shredders', as you so originally called them, and stronger armor are just a couple of what few weapons we were outfitting his body with to test the battle programs. After that, all he has is lasers, some throwing blade disks, and the ability to crush who ever is in him. His battle mode was in the Ferrari FXX mode for speed and turning capability reasons, but was not fully finished. If he has fallen into that mode, then it is not Cadge who is in control but the battle program, and that battle program is unpredictable, unstable, even deadly. So, Ms. Wild…"

Gomez stood up.

"Exactly how much damage has Cadge already done?"


	18. Briar Patch

**Disclaimer: Dude, you know this already; Knight Rider belongs to some super dudes and Cadge and the story belong to me.**

**Chapter 18: Briar Patch**

An impact of metal on metal, the pattering of scattering dirt, and Kitt just barely managed to keep himself on line as he was sent spinning away from the metallic robot fist that had slammed into him. If Kitt had had eyes, they would be rolling in his sockets. Karr's shadow fell over him as Kitt's nanobots worked over time to repair the dents and shattered glass of his driver's side. A red message was flashing in Kitt's programming, telling him that his nanobots were reaching their full capability; they needed time to recharge.

_"Kitt,"_ Zoe told him from her temporary, lonesome base in the Spencer mansion. _"Your scanners have all gone to hell, your nanobots are reaching the shut down point, your frame is over stressed and worst of all… your FM radio is disconnected. Get out of there, Kitt! Sarah and Billy found Michael!"_

Before Kitt could acknowledge the order, one of Karr's hands came down on his roof, pinning him to the ground. Karr activated the super heaters there and Kitt's wheels stirred and spun on the dirt as the metal claw-fingers began to glow red hot and sizzle into the roof.

"I've been waiting for this day for a long time, Kitt," Karr growled as his other hand turned into a laser gun with a yellow-orange light core. "With you out of the way, Michael will be mine once more and we will fix this broken, weak, spoiled world. The only thing good you ever did for me was to kill me that way I may remake myself better than ever. Oh, look on the bright side, Kitt!" Karr said cheerfully, carefully aiming his laser at Kitt's hood. "You're dying for a better cause!"

_**"Boss!"**_ Nasam yelled, skidding to a halt on the desert road behind Karr.

"What, Nasam?" Karr growled without looking away from Kitt. "Can't you see that I'm a little busy?"

_**"Michael wants to talk to you."**_

The sensory antennae fins on Karr's small head perked up, then he turned his head to look at Nasam.

"What?" he whispered quietly, disguising the relief. "Well, then, let him out!"

The black and orange car's side door opened and Michael came out. He looked a bit ruffled, and he still had a clump of dried blood on the back of his head still from when the drone had fallen on it and given back his memories. Wow; it was less than twelve hours ago, but already it seemed like ages.

Michael squinted against the bright sun, looking around, then turned around and made eye contact with Karr. The two stood in silence, staring at each other. Nasam quietly and slowly moved forward to not be between them and turned around to see the scene directly. Kitt remained pinned under Karr's red-hot hand, taking the break in battle to have his nanobots get a recharge. Michael slowly walked forward to the edge of the road, then past it, and kept walking until he was a car length in front of Karr. Finally, he spread his arms.

"You win, Karr; you can have me," Michael said.

"Michael, no!" Kitt exclaimed, stressing his voice for the first time in remembered existence.

"No, Kitt!" Michael yelled at Kitt, anger crossing his features. "Innocent people are getting hurt because _I_ keep running away. But I'm sick of running way, Kitt! And I'm sick of loosing!"

"What--?" Kitt began to ask.

"You heard me! When ever I do a mission for FLAG, I get the shit beaten out of me and in the end, the bad guy winds up dead or in jail for less than ten years with parole, and there's nothing to show for it! The world's a _shit bag_, Kitt, and we can't fix it." Michael turned to look over at the silent Ferrari FXX. "Nasam told me what Karr and him are planning to do." He turned to look up at Karr. "And I want to be in on it. The human race is broken and it needs its weak parts removed. So come on, Karr," Michael said, taking a step closer to Karr. "Let's get back to work… partner."

If Karr could smile, he would be doing it now.

Removing his over heated hand (now cooling), from Kitt's hood and transforming the other one back into a hand, Karr lowered himself and gently scooped Michael. Michael was noticably still nervous about Karr, as he was trembling in Karr's hands like a rabbit hidign in a briar patch, but Karr accepted that. His chest opened up as he brought Michael to it.

"I knew you would come around, Michael," Karr said as he ever so carefully slipped Michael into the exposed cavity. "Don't worry; I'll take care of you."

"Michael!!!" Kitt bellowed as the chest cavity closed over Michael. Kitt's systems finally kicked into action from their brief break and Kitt backed up, ready to charge Karr.

"Oh, harm me, will you?" Karr sneered down at Kitt. "When I have a human with in me? Your program forbids deliberately harming a human, doesn't it, Kitt?"

Kitt's brakes screeched as he stopped abruptly, confirming Karr's suspicions. Karr shook his metal head with a small grunt of agreement.

"Pathetic," he hissed. "You are of no bother to me now." He switched to Machine, _**"Nasam! Come; we have a mechanical race to raise up!"**_

Nasam gunned his engine and ran his tires on the road, making them screech and blow up smoke eagerly as Karr transformed into his car form and sped away. Nasam followed him and Kitt was left alone, slowly rolling onto the road and watching them go. Kitt was still parked there when a silver Nissan GT-R drove up beside him and Billy jumped out.

"Kitt! Kitt! It's Michael he—" Billy began yelling.

"I know, Billy," Kitt interrupted. "He has joined Karr."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Elsewhere, Ms. Wild and Spencer were following Gomez through long, colorless hall ways that gave off the air of a hospital. As they spoke, with Ms. Wild practically stumbling over her own feet in nervousness, people frequently walked up to Gomez, asked him something, and he answered before returning to their conversation without breaking stride.

"So, um, this, um, un-official military effort," Ms. Wild said. "What does it, um, _include_, exactly?"

"Guns, helicopters, Electric Magnet Pulse generators, tanks, and things that just go boom in general, what did you think, Ms. Wild?" was Gomez's simple response.

A man jogged along side Gomez and held up two forms. Gomez pointed to one and the man ran on ahead.

"Tanks? Did you say tanks?" Spencer asked, perking up.

"Wow, uh, Mr. Gomez, that seems quite alot, are you sure that that's not over kill?" Wild asked nervously.

"Ms. Wild," Gomez replied, turning left down another hall way. "This is Cadge we're talking about here, the Cyber Android of Demolitions Games Expert. He has multiple personalities for multiple alt-modes because of multiple programs. If we underestimate him, especially in any of his hostile forms, he can and he _will_ crush us."

A woman in a lab coat ran up to him and held to strange silver objects up.

"The one with a red band in the middle, Mrs. Crackers," Gomez told her.

"Cyber… So _that's_ what it really means," Wild muttered.

"Run that by me again: Did you really say tanks?" Spencer asked.

"But Gomez—" Wild began to add.

"No buts, Ms. Wild," Gomez interrupted. "These FLAG people you speak so highly of did wrong in not finding us sooner and thus have given Cadge's personalities more time to grow and mature as he grows and matures. This has resulted in something like a briar patch growing even more and more wild until only harsh fire can remove it. He may be beyond rescuing, Ms. Wild."

Tears sprang to Ms. Wild's eyes at these words as they came to a set of double doors. She turned and cuddled up against Spencer, who set and arm on her shoulders comfortingly. Gomez took pity on her. He really was a nice guy; he just never had had any idea about what Cadge had been going through at the hands of the other scientists. All he had ever wanted was to work with machines. So what if he had to go and blow some up now and then? It was all apart of the job. But looking at Ms. Wild now, he remembered that to some people, machines had ghosts in them, and when that ghost took on a sentience of its own, it was only human to grow attached to it.

"I know he grew under your hands, Ms. Wild," he said. "And I see how much you care for him. We'll try and save him, but I can't make grantees. But on the bright side…"

He turned and grinned as he shoved the double doors open, revealing an enormous garage beyond. Spencer's and Wild's jaws dropped upon seeing what was in that garage. Even the distraught Ms. Wild had to admit that what she was impressive.

"We'll be hunting him with the best professionals money can buy!" Gomez finished proudly.


	19. Inner Turmoil

**Disclaimer: You hear a broken record in the background I do not own Knight Rider, just Cadge and the story.**

**Chapter 19: Inner Turmoil**

Michael was sitting in a dark space with comfortable leather seats beneath him and numerous red, orange, and golden yellow lights on the dashboard in front of him. A window revealed to him the outside world as seen from the driver's position. He watched as numerous lines and measuring programs swept the area, looking for danger and looking at the surrounding environment's conditions as it went from desert to trailer town and Karr and Nasam sped through it.

"So…" Michael said awkwardly. "No sticky wires or probing barbs?"

"I only installed such things when I abducted Alex Torres because I hated him," Karr snorted.

"Yeah, well, you never did like the creep," Michael chuckled. "Especially when he suggested that you uninstalled your guns after that raid of the Arabian mansion. Man, you were _pissed_!"

"Yes, I was," Karr chuckled, suddenly slowing.

Karr and Nasam stopped, letting some children dash across the dirt road to the trailers on the other side. Michael was mildly surprised at this until he remembered that Karr didn't like attacking kids; he had never seen a point in it, after all, they were just "harmless, stupid flesh bags".

The golden yellow light on Karr's orb began jittering in a way that Michael recognized as sadness; a trait he had learned from back in the old days with Karr.

"Look at them," Karr said as they began to slowly drive on through the trailer trash town. "All these people living in a land where no one is supposed to go without while their leaders sit in Washington snoring away their meetings."

"Yeah, well," Michael said, looking out the window. "When the rich wage poor it's the poor that die, or so said Linken Park. So the more poor a country has, the more likely they're going to win because they got more men to fight for them."

"In deed," Karr sighed sadly. "When we are through, the humans that fought for their own lives hard enough will not be forced to live under such conditions. Or, at the very least, they will not have such hypocritical leaders."

"Yeap," Michael agreed.

Strings twisted in his heart.

When Michael had managed to drag the whole machine-taking-over-the-world plot from the rather snappy Nasam, he had also been told of how Karr was beating the crap out of Kitt. Kitt had acted on a whim to protect his new car partner and agreed to rejoin his old car partner. Michael had been hoping that once Kitt had had enough time to get his wind back, Kitt would be able to come after Karr, ruin him, and win the day. At the very least Sarah would see through his ploy and come rescue him. But now… Now that he was encountering the good old days with Karr and actually in him again… Michael just didn't know.

Being in Karr, it brought back all sorts of memories. Sure, it was a completely different body from the original, but the lay out and form of it was identicle. He remmebered sitting in the passenger seat for their first couple dozen missions, arguing with Karr to let him drive. He remembered having to duck once as they were being chased by gun men and the rear view mirror got shot out. When Karr had been really mad at Michael for a prank, he'd pressed Karr's radio buttons until Karr had, literally, flung him out of himself and drove away screaming. Heh... good memories.

Part of him wanted to destroy Karr once and for all (giving the CPU drive a good crunch below his heel as he did), and continue working with Kitt and FLAG after he buried his memories of Karr away. But another part of him… another part of him was nostalgic for the good old days when he and Karr were simply told the mission and given a maximum amount of collateral damage they could inflict. He liked those days when he and Karr could finish off the mission in the most _amazing_ ways, whether it was letting a bootlegger's herd of horses loose across town or wrestling for life on top of a Chinese temple high in the mountains; life was _good _then.

Now… Now, here in the States, he worked with a tiny little FLAG that was already close enough as it was to the line that if he so much as punched the wrong guy he ran a threat of getting their tiny operation shut down. And on top of that, FLAG just wasn't _doing_ enough; there was always another drug-hauling jerk off or another gun-toting mobster to ruin his one day off and make him come back to get more injuries. The only good thing he got out of it was typical hot woman hanging around the sex-thirsting, oh-so-proud hey-look-at-me-I-got-a-hot-girlfriend target.

Kitt was his best friend and loyal to the end in the ways of FLAG, but his soul whimpered for the wild, unpredictable days with Karr. Worst of all: _Karr_ had been his best freind, loyal to the end, until they had been seperated, and Kitt was, in all honesty, a replacement.

Who was he to join?

Michael's thoughts broke apart like a kicked in house of cars when he realized that Karr was in the wrong lane and a truck was approaching.

"_KARR!"_ Michael yelled, seizing the wheel and yanking him back to the right side of the road. "Are you _stupid_!? You'll get us—"

He fell silent when Karr laughed at him.

"It's nice to see that you appreciate a good game of Chicken!" Karr chuckled, referring to an inside joke of theirs.

Michael looked down at his hands when he noticed that his hands had yet to remove themselves from Karr's steering wheel, as if confused as to how they got there. After a minute, he slowly set his foot on the gas pedal and pressed. A few minutes later, they were passing from trailer town into suburbia, and Karr was not driving.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Michael did _what_!?" Sarah exclaimed.

Several of the people around her in the hospital lobby turned to stare at the attractive woman yelling into the pay phone, but she ignored them as Billy talked to her from the other end.

_"Kitt says he joined Karr,"_ he repeated.

"Wh-huh? No!" Sarah stammered. "Michael wouldn't do that!"

_"Kitt says he saw Michael join himself; said something about some sort of plan concerning 'removing the weak parts' of the human race, what ever __that__ means."_

_"But there is a 43% chance that he was bluffing in order to keep Karr from killing me,"_ Kitt commented.

_"Why the low number?"_ Zoe asked, being connected to the conversation through Kitt.

_"Well, considering that Michael has now remembered his past adventures and partnership with Karr,"_ Kitt replied. _"There is still a large chance that he has truly joined Karr because Karr was his original partner. I was just the replacement."_

"Hey, Kitt, don't talk about yourself like that," Sarah said. "You're _way_ better than that nut-and-bolt case, Karr. Do we know where they're at?"

_"I detect police complaints on the radio of a Ferrari FX and a Mustang Shelby racing to Watson City south and west of us,"_ Kitt replied. _"We must go there to take end Karr, fix Cadge, and finally rescue Michael."_

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Sarah asked. "Go after them!"

_"Spencer and Wild called earlier,"_ Zoe said. _"They said that Masquerade Inc is coming after Cadge with all they've got because he's currently in his unfinished battle mode—"_

_"Let me guess,"_ Billy interrupted. _"Unstable, unfinished, and they were originally going to sell him to an army?"_

_"Yeah! How did you--?"_

_"Figures. We got to get to Cadge before Masquerade does and blows him and Karr up. If they take out Karr, they might kill Michael."_

"Alright, so do that," Sarah said, "I'll keep an eye on the old guy Cadge attacked to get Michael, pray that he has something useful to tell us when he wakes up, while Billy and Kitt can get to Karr and Cadge and try taking them out _without_ hurting Michael. Zoe, you keep us all connected. If Spencer or Wild call again, make sure to update them on the situation, okay?"

Confirmation calls came from all around before the connections were broken. Billy started up the Nissan GT-R and followed Kitt down along the desert road, speeding after Karr and Cadge/Nasam. Zoe watched from Spencer's office from Kitt's point of view, watching the pavement disappear at the bottom of the screen as he sped along. Sarah stood in the waiting room, waiting for the man, Will Dagger, to wake up and see if he knew anything that could help them.

But her mind kept drifting back to Michael. Was he full of wires and cables now? Was he okay? Was he alive? Did Karr hurt him? Was Michael bluffing, or was he going to really help Karr with what ever scheme they had cooked out? Kitt had said reported that he had heard Michael say something about joining Karr's plan. But what plan were they thinking of?

Sarah groaned and sat down hard, covering his face with her hands.

"Please be safe, Michael," she whispered.


	20. TANKS!

**Disclaimer: I am not dumb enough to claim that I own Knight Rider, but I _do_ own Cadge and the story. *pets Cadge***

**Chapter 20:TANKS?!**

Karr, Michael, and Nasam were just entering Watson City when Nasam's engine suddenly coughed painfully and his entire frame shuddered as he stalled. Karr slowed as Nasam pulled over into a parking spot on the side of the road and sat there, engine coughing and his frame shaking horribly.

"_**Nasam,"**_ Karr asked in Machine, making an illegal U-turn to turn to circle around and park in a space opposite the street of the Ferrari. More than one driver behind him had to slam on their brakes and honked their horns at his antics. _**"What's wrong?"**_

Nasam's engine whined pitifully before hacking and coughing again. Several people walking the side walks and driving by in their cars looked over at the Ferrari curiously. A Ferrari in their town was unusual enough, but a sick-sounding Ferrari topped that.

_**"Nasam?"**_ Karr asked again.

A beep sounded in Nasam and a dull masculine computer voice spoke.

_"Warning: Energy levels reaching dangerously low level. Energy is at twenty-six percent. Warning: Complication in program. Error: Program not fully written yet. Recommend contacting nearest car provider and ask for assistance…"_

_**"They never finished you?" **_Karr asked, rolling across the street. _**"Idiots; let's fix that up…"**_

"Um, Karr?" Michael asked, looking around. "What's going on? We're king of holding up traffic."

Karr was silent a moment, then opened his door.

"Nasam's sick," Karr said. "Drive him and follow me. There's bound to be an abandoned parking garage we can park in until we can fix him…"

Michael got out and quickly walked over to Nasam, climbing into the driver's seat. The windows had un-tinted to letting him see out. He carefully set his hands on the shaking steering wheel, stroking the black leather grips comfortingly.

"Hey, Nasam," he said gently. "You shut down and let me take care of you. You'll be all better when you wake up."

A sigh of relief escape Nasam's air conditioning as the small screen went dark on the dashboard and the engine and shuttering stopped. After a minute, Michael looked for a key and found none; just a button. He pressed it and the car started up with a lovely purr.

"Oh, that's nice," Michael chuckled.

"Follow me, Michael," Karr said, driving down the proper lane of traffic and unclogging it.

Michael followed Karr, resisting the urge to simply slam on the gas and go for a joy ride. Soon, they were driving into the down town area where many a store, warehouse, and parking garage had been shut down due to the economic problem. A white and red stripped bar was set across the entrance to a parking garage with a white plastic "Closed" sign hanging over it with federal warnings printed in tiny lettering beneath it. Karr drove right through this and led Michael up to the second level before stopping in the center of the expansive concrete floor. Michael parked and stepped out of Nasam, blinking his eyes against the darkness as Karr transformed into his robot mode and turned back to them.

"Alright, boy, let's fix you…" Karr muttered, tapping Nasam's roof.

Michael took the hint and reached into Nasam, pulling on the hood release lever. When the hood popped up, Karr gently lifted it up and Michael set the stick up to keep the hood open. In the center of the engine was a silver box the size of a text book with a beaked masquerade mask imprinted to the top. Karr gently set a finger on top of the box and Michael watched as a series of small crackles of electricity ran from Karr's finger to the box and back again. After a long moment, the Ferrari started up with a small engine gun, lurching on its wheels as something in it whistled loudly.

Karr and Michael both drew back as the prop stick kicked itself out and the hood slammed shut. Black metal paled and turned grey before turning into a ragged blue and yellow paint job as the front end puffed up, turning from a pointed face to a soft cornered nose. Head lights sprouted from their tiny cavities, and the over all body grew a little bit larger as the windows lost their tint, the side mirrors flicked up from the sides, and the razor-sharp spinners sank back into the wheels. Once more, an innocent-looking Porsche Carrera GT was parked before them.

"Cadge…" Michael whispered.

A pained whimper came from the Porsche's systems.

"His energy level is at twelve percent," Karr informed. "He will need proper recharging. Michael?"

"Yeah, Karr?"

"Go get yourself something to eat. There is a credit card hidden in the back of the cell phone I gave you. I'll stay here and keep an eye on Cadge; try figuring out how to fully energize and fix this flux he has in his personalities."

"Sure you don't want to keep an eye on me?" Michael asked, taking out the cell phone and finding that it did have a fake back on it under which a credit card was hidden.

"I trust you," Karr stated.

Michael's heart squeezed inside him in guilt.

Michael smiled sadly. "Thanks," he said, turning and walking away.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

On the south side of the city, mean while, a caravan was enterign the city, drawing attention and making common folk stop in their tracks. Law enforcement officers who had already been warned of this caravan's coming stayed where they were, but were noticably agitated by the caravan's strange presence. It looked like something that had rolled out of a sci-fic movie... literally.

Silvery blue semis, jeeps, and even three tanks, were entering the city. People turned to watch the caravan, but no one did anything about it. The police dared not raise an alarm; they had been informed a little under an hour ago that there would be such a caravan and were told to do nothing other than keep curious civilians away from it. One would think the sparkling finish of the machines was that of a show off, but they were, in truth, actually covered in a paint that made them twice stronger than they would have been initially.

In the semi trailer holding a portable computer laboratory, Ms. Wild and Gomez were staring at a map of the city in which a blue blip was steadily glowing in one spot.

"He's stopped moving," Gomez stated.

"How are we tracking him?" Wild asked. "If you had tracked him before, then you could have come after him yourself."

"His energy's running low and his computer is setting out an emergency tracking signal as a call for help. He's dormant now, so we have to act fast, move in, and remove his computer from his body before anyone plugs him into a wall or gives him some gas. Hell, him just _sitting_ there will replenish enough energy juice to make him run as long as he doesn't change!"

"Did we have to bring the tanks?"

_"Hell yeah, Wild!"_ Spencer exclaimed over his communications link from where he was riding in one of the tanks.

"And where did you even _get_ tanks, any way!?"

"Where do you think the army get's half of its stuff? From its own scientists? _Puh-leaze_; they don't have a _finger_ on so much as _one_ technological genius in their ranks compared to who's hiding in the shadows of their parents' basements. The best geniuses are home grown, Ms. Wild. Now hush, we're approaching Cadge's current position…"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Kitt, Billy," Zoe exclaimed to the human and car as they sped into Watson City from the north. "I just did a scan of the city via satellite; Cadge is giving off some sort of emergency signal in a shut down parking garage, Michael is less than a block from the same garage, Masquerade guys are coming on the parking garage! And Masquerade's got tanks!!"

_"We're on it, Sarah,"_ Kitt said, speeding up even more. _"Billy; get Michael. I will handle Cadge; Karr is bound to be near him. Zoe, can you stall Masquerade?"_

Zoe was about to answer no, but an idea struck her.

"I think so."

_"Do it,"_ Kitt stated, separating from Billy.

"Wait, did she tanks?" Billy called after Kitt.

Zoe turned to Spencer's office's desk and picked up the phone, pressing in some numbers, she waited as the phone rang, quietly praying that the person she was calling wouldn't be busy. Finally, the phone clicked as a person answered.

_"Hello, you're talking to Bob "Chill" Crackers from Watson City. If you're one of the cow boys I pissed off at the ranch at that Navajo-town ranch gig, I'm sorry, man, I meant to say 'luck to you' and not—"_

"Hey, Chill," Zoe said.

_"Zoe, my girl! What up, girl? How's tricks?"_

"Ooh, tricks aren't so good, Chill," Zoe said. "See, it's a long story, but some friends of mine are about to get blown off the face of the earth…"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Michael was at an ATM machine with drawing money with the suspicious credit card when a hand fell on his shoulder and spun him around, making him face Billy.

"Billy!" he exclaimed. "How did you find me?"

"Saw you on the side of the road, where's Karr? Come on!" Billy said, pulling Michael toward Billy's borrowed Nissan. "Where's Cadge? Are you okay? Never mind, we have to scram before Kitt and Karr face off and things _really _hit the fan--"

"W-Wait!" Michael exclaimed.

"What, Michael?" Billy asked, turning to Michael. "We gotta go before Karr gets you again!"

"What if… What if I _want_ him to get me?" Michael asked, swallowing a lump in his throat. Part of him was saying that while this was hard, it was necessary. The other part was behaving exactly like Billy…

Billy stared at Michael for a long moment then tilted his head slightly.

"Are you _crazy_??" he asked. "Karr's a homicidal, transforming, world domination-craving robot! Why the hell would you _want_ to stay with him??"

"Because he's my partner; my _real_ partner," Michael replied. "He was there for me in the very beginning and was my original partner before Kitt replaced him. Billy, I—"

Some loud machinery could be heard approaching now and Billy put a hand on Michael's shoulder and interrupted Michael.

"Yeah, yeah, you're suffering a cuncussion or a stupidity sickness, may be brain cancer. But we gotta go 'cause Masquerade's coming for Cadge and they _are_ equipped to blow half the city away for him."

"M-Masquerade, blow up—what?" Michael asked, looking around as traffic stopped and people began to move towards the heavy machine sound. "Billy, what do you mean--?"

He looked up the street and his eyes widened as a long, silvery gun barrel poked around the corner. It moved around the corner and into view to reveal a tank. Two more joined it and they all turned to point their guns at Parking Garage 016, which they parked in front of. Three black semis were parked further up the street and six jeeps came to spread out and shoo the civilians away from the parking garage. Michael turned to Billy as he pointed to the tanks.

"Is that a _tank_!?" he exclaimed.

"Yes, it is a—what the cow, it's a tank!!" Billy exclaimed, stopping himself when he, too, saw the tanks. "Oh, wow, I, uh, didn't think they'd bring those…"

"Billy, what is going on??" Michael demanded.

"Look; Cadge was the beginning of some military project and he's got big stuff in him that they need a tank for," Billy said quickly. "My opinion for them; good of Karr, please don't actually hit Cadge. But we gotta go, now!"

_Karr…_ Michael thought.

Michael broke away from Billy and bolted up the street.

"Mike? Mike? Mike! Hey, Mike!" Billy yelled after him. "You're going the wrong way!"

He gritted his teeth and groaned in frustration, "Ah, shit. Wait for me!" He bolted forward after Michael.

Behind him, tires screeched and some cars stopped in the traffic-frozen street. Teenagers jumped out of the car and exchanged looks over their car roofs in amazement.

"These the guys Chill was talking about on the radio?" one of them asked.

"It better be or we got more than one gang of tank-totting old dudes in our town!" another agreed.

"Let's go!" a girl exclaimed, grabbing a baseball bat from her car's back seat and leading the way to the tanks. "We gotta keep them from killing the Cadge dude!"

Michael had just reached the parking garage when the center of the lined up tanks let out a shell and blew up part of the parking garage just above his head.


	21. Reformatting

**Disclaimer: I don't own Knight Rider or any attached charachrtes, just Cadge and the story. If Watson City or any named places or things other than the obvious happen to exist, then they belong to themselves and are a coincodence to be in the story.**

**Chapter 21: Reformatting**

Cadge's sensors came on line to find himself in an empty parking garage. He could hear distant booms and the concrete trembled beneath him as shifts of dirt fell from the ceiling cracks, but he found that he couldn't move. Around him were four other cars; a Koenigsegg CCR, a Ferrari FXX, an Acura NSX, and an Ascari A10: his alt-modes. He ran through his memory banks quickly and realized that he had been in some sort of crazed state last time he was awake before shutting down due to lack of energy and programming complications and misfires.

"I'm dreaming, aren't I?" he asked.

The low engine rumbles from the others agreed.

"What do you want?"

**"The technical term is that you're reformatting yourself,"** the intelligent Koenigsegg said. **"Currently, your computer mind is seeing your alt modes and their programs as separate beings to help you handle us better."**

The Ferrari spoke in a series of hydraulic hisses, engine snarls and growls and flashing lights; it saw no point in reformatting. It was stupid! Nothing could work with it!

Only because you are such a blood-thirsty idiot, the Ascari growled gruffly, also using body language rather than actual words or the wordlessness of the Ferrari.

_"Cadge, you gotta wake up!"_ the Acura, Cadge's favorite, begged. _"Masquerade is attacking and they're gonna put you down for you good because you're so out of control! Run, Cadge, run! But run skid marks around them while you're at it."_

The Ferrari sneered that why should they run? Masquerade would only pursue them! It wanted to stand and fight.

**"Cadge is too weak, Nasam,"** the Koenigsegg pointed out. **"He will shut down again if he goes out to fight."**

"What is the _point_ of reformatting?" Cadge asked. "What's it going to do?"

**"With your programming?" **the Koenigsegg asked. **"Probably create a whole new program all together with all the jumbling data. Cadge, our time is short, and the others here aren't going to tell you, so I will: You have to learn to control us. You're sentient; you don't have to live like this. You have a choice as to what you do in life and can change yourself. Learn to use us all together and you can over come Masquerade!"**

Then the cars were gone and the light darkened around Cadge as he partially exited his dream-like state. He could feel his computer data flying around in its digital world, swapping data, mixing it up, and basically trying to set it all straight. Cadge turned his sensors off and made his scared mind slow down to ponder over the Koenigsegg car's words.

He has to control the alt modes and their program-personalities, making them work for him rather for themselves. He had a flight-not-fight dare devil Acura, a feral and impatient Ascari road warrior, an intelligent Koenigsegg, and a wild, battle-ready Ferrari. How could he meld all these people into something he could use to rescue him?

He was scared, bolts, he was scared. He wanted to find Wild and have her drive him to where he needed to go, or hide in FLAG's base, or ask Kitt what he should do. But would any of them accept him for what he'd done? He probably killed that old man, and traumatized that boy at the radio tower. He had allianced himself with Karr to try taking over the world, would anyone want to be his friend now?

_No, don't think like that!_ He scolded himself. _You're a car with mimicking, machine-control, and super scanning abilities, damnit! You can do this!_

So Cadge sat in a void between sleep and wakefulness and pondered over his situation.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Michael fell on the ground, covering his head with his arms as the debris fell on him, but none of it touched him. Looking up, he found that Karr had appeared and was bent over him, arms wrapped protectively around his area to block the debris. Karr shook some of the concrete rocks off and stood up straight, almost twenty feet in height, and looked out at the Masquerade mini-army. Everyone stared back in shock.

Then the center tank pointed its gun barrel up at Karr and all chaos broke out.

Teens and young adults had obeyed Bob "Chill" Cracker's call for help, put out on Zoe's asking, to delay Masquerade's destroying of the people hiding in Parking Garage 016. They took up bats, crow bars, and brass knuckles to swarm the men at the jeeps. As the un-official soldiers and teenagers fought as cops swarmed the scene, flocking from all corners of the city from hearing the explosion. Seeing the fighting, they got confused and opened fire. Karr, meanwhile, bent over and scooped Michael up.

"I think it's time to test a new program of mine," Karr said, slipping Michael into the chest cavity. "Do you see hologramed cylinder structures in there?"

Michael looked and saw that golden yellow hologramed cylinders the size of arm casts were floating in the air in front of him.

"Yeah," he said.

"Put your arms in those."

Michael did and a golden-visor helmet dropped from the ceiling, clasping over his face. Michael suddenly saw the world from a high point of view. Targeting cross hairs appeared on all potential targets and he could see all sorts of measurements and scales around his vision.

"Karr! What the--!?" Michael exclaimed, jerking his shoulders back and looking around.

**"A body sharing program,"** Karr chuckled in his ear. **"I'll control specific functions, but you control body movement. Go on; test it."**

Michael looked down at his left hand, only to see Karr's metal gauntlet. He watched as it folded up and narrowed to become a gun. He raised the gun, looking at it, then looked over at the tanks. The center cannon, the sensors said, was about to shoot him. Michael aimed the laser at the tank.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Billy ducked instinctively as Karr shot at the tank, making it jerk back on its treads a foot.

"Oh _shit!!"_ he yelled, hiding behind a parked truck as gun fire crossed between confused cops and Masquerade guards. "Damn you stupid Karr!"

His cell phone rang and he answered it.

_"What!?"_ he screamed into the phone. He was _not_ having a good day.

_"Billy, I can not approach the garage any more due to traffic conditions and the battle,"_ Kitt replied on the other end. _"I will begin calming the battle down out here. You go into the garage and see if you can find and help Cadge."_

"Yeah, but how?" Billy asked, shouting over the gun shots.

The bland dial tone was the phone's laughter at his question.

"Damn you living cars," Billy muttered, flipping his cell phone closed. "Should've worked with Microsoft..."

He looked around, making sure that Karr was too busy fighting the tanks and the humans were too busy fighting each other to notice him before taking a chance and bolting into the parking garage.

The garage was spooky-dark inside with lack of working lights. In the rare spots he could see light, cracks littered the concrete floor and ceiling, graffiti covered the walls and even parts of the floor, and parts of the pavement were simply crumbling. Weeds and moss even grew here and there.

"Sheesh, what a dump," Billy muttered to non-existent listeners. "Perfect hide out for a creep like Karr…"

"He is not a complete creep."

A low engine rumble drew his attention to the voice and Billy spun around. When he saw that it was Cadge in his Porsche mode, he settled down slightly. Perhaps Cadge had returned to his normal self?

"What do you mean 'not a complete creep'?" Billy asked.

"I mean," Cadge went on. "He's crazy, sure. He wants to create a virus program that will make all machines sentient so that he can over throw the human race. But deep down in side, all he wants is to be reunited with Michael, the first and only person to truly and personally care about him.

"But enough of that; innocent idiot youth are being hurt out there for my sake. We have to dismantle the tanks before they hurt Michael, who's in Karr, and the jeeps and Masquerade troops before any one is seriously killed. But I need to recharge, and I can't do that in action while controlling myself. So…"

Cadge opened his driver's door.

"Want to team up?"

"Like Kitt and Michael?"

"Like Kitt and Michael."

"Sweet! Do I get to order you to shoot lasers?"

"……. No."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sarah was the first thing Will saw when he woke up from being unconscious. He stared at her with wide, old man's eyes as she spoke.

"Hi, I'm Sarah Graiman," she began. "I'm a friend of Michael's, the man who was with you this morning when--"

"Some pissed off ass hole in a racing car tried to turn me into two Wills to get him to come with them, I know," Will interrupted. "And you must be the darling angel and special girl Michael's told me so much about. Huh, you're just as pretty as he told me you were."

Sarah was struck dumb for several minutes.

Finally, her tongue remembered that it was in her mouth for a reason.

"M-Mike told you about me?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

When the silvery Porsche drove out from the garage with a comically friendly greeting engine growl, Michael glanced down from his perch in side of Karr before suddenly whipping his borrowed metal hands up to catch one of the tanks' missiles in his hand.

"Badass," Michael whistled, chucking the missile over his shoulder, where it blew up on one of the upper stories of the parking garage.

**"Very."** Karr agreed. **"But what is Cadge/ Nasam doing?"**

"Good question," Michael said, ducking a small missle. He picked up a large bit of concrete and threw it at the left most tank in front of him. The concrete block broke in half on top of the tank, but the tank barely dented; it was made of some _tough _stuff.

Further up the center of the three streets leading to the battle field in front of the abandoned parking garage, Kitt was trying to pick people off as carefully as he could with tranquilizer darts and stun lasers, but he was just about out of darts and it was getting harder for him to aim with his already bruised systems being pushed harder than they needed to be. He needed to be repaired by Sarah, ASAP...

_"Kitt,"_ Zoe called over the communications link with the machine, _"Billy's in side of Cadge, and Cadge's back to normal. Be careful not to hit them!"_

"Don't worry, Zoe," Kitt commented, stopping his laser firing. "But my systems can simply not shoot anything more at the moment. I am in dire need of repair."

_"Well then, just shut up and watch them!"_

_"Hey, guys, this is Sarah,"_ Sarah said, suddenly joining the conversation. _"I'm coming to the battle from the hospital Will was at. Update, now."_

_"It looks like Billy and Cadge are gonna try being Michael and Kitt today,"_ Zoe answered.

Sarah was silent for a long minute.

Finally, she groaned, _"Aw crap."_

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Meanwhile, the Porsche roared its engine, showing off its location to the Masquerade troops. Several of the surrounding human fighters turned around to see what was up.

"Get him!" Dr. Gomez roared.

"Cadge!" Wild cried out fearfully.

"Don't worry, Wild, I'll just nick him," Spencer called from in side one of the tanks, turning his gun barrel down on the Porsche.

But the Porsche gunned its engine and jolted forward on its wheels. People understood and parted the crowd for it, not wanting to become poorly made pancakes. The Porsche leaped forward, charging right for the semi hauling Dr. Gomez, Ms. Wild, and the main computer equipment.

"What the…?" Gomez muttered.

The Porsche stopped inches from the semi, making the trucker with in flinch. Two long cables with sharp metal barbs at the end slithered out from just beneath the front bumper, swaying in the air before they stabbed themselves into the semi's grill. The barbs on the end sparked before electricity began leaping up on the semi's engine-filled nose before running down the cables and raced into the car at the end of them.

"Is that something Cadge was built with?" Wild asked Dr. Gomez.

"Um..... no," Gomez stated. "We had nothing of this sort of thing planned for Cadge.... This can't be good for us."

Inside the Porsche, Billy looked at the pale blue screen on the dashboard as a bar appeared on screen, measuring the energy flow. It was deep red at the bottom, but as the bar grew, it turned to orange, then yellow, then yellow-green before finally reaching its peak and becoming full green.

There was a cheerful beep and Cadge's dull masculine computer program spoke with a note of cheerfulness in its voice.

_"Energy levels at 100%. Activating new Multi-Alt-Mode Attack Program."_

"Oh yeah," Billy squeaked happily, squeezing Cadge's steering wheel.

Then things got _real_ interesting.


	22. Final Decesions

**Disclaimer: You know who owns what, so don't set the rabid crazy zombie lawyer monsters after me.**

**Chapter 22: Final Decesions**

The cables attaching Cadge to the semi with drew themselves back into the Porsche, taking a nasty chunk of the semi grille with them. The semi coughed pathetically and smoked in defeat. There was a mischievous, gun-_cha-click_ sound with in Cadge as he spun around to face the battlefield.

First up was the feral and serious Ascari A10, making the Porsche become long and flat as it slipped into its merciless self that first made its appearance while boldly chasing on the highways to Ms. Wild. It made sure to keep its roof this time, at least. The cables that had just helped it recharge off of the semi slid out of two holes stationed under its narrow head lights. The metal barbs at the end rotated and clicked together, forming intricate claws. The Ascari zipped forward, catching people up and gently tossing them away and out of the battle field, making sure that they landed as gently as possible. The claws seized the startled Masquerade soldiers' and city cops' guns from their hands and flung them aside, sending them skittering across the pavement. Some people got the idea and ran. Most stayed behind to see what would happen next or kept on fighting.

Two of the tanks reminded the Ascari that they were there by shooting off some of their missiles at the Ascari. The missiles hit home, but when the smoke cleared, it was not the Ascari there. It was the intelligent Koenigsegg CCR, who had first rescued Michael at the Mob man's party, transforming to take the now-damaged Ascari car's place so that the repair system may activate. Cadge's intelligence leapt with in the Koenigsegg form and he knew that he could not defeat the tanks with mere brawn; few things could.

"Drive me around behind their gun muzzles, quick, before they turn!" Cadge ordered Billy.

Billy complied and the Koenigsegg slid around, gliding on skidding wheels, as it sped around the tanks so that it was looking at the bottom of their official fronts. The gun muzzles were still pointing behind themselves at the battle field. Darting forward, the Koenigsegg stopped just short of bumping into the first massive war machine. A diamond-shaped door opened up on its flawlessly smooth front hood and the two metal cables from before darted out of the hood, intertwined together to stab into the tank with their sharp barbs. Blue electricity ran from the Koenigsegg to the tank and the tank's engine died.

Billy backed the car up and forward, doing the same thing to the tank on the other end of the line. But by the time it backed up one more time to hit the third and middle tank, the tank's muzzle had spun around and was aimed directly at the Koenigsegg.

A missile hit, point-blank, at the hood.

_"SPENCER!!"_ Ms. Wild screamed into the man's ear piece.

"Oww! Oww!" he whined, rubbing his ear. "Don't worry, he's okay! See?"

Sure enough, even though the Koenigsegg car's hood end was demolished, it shivered and changed once more. Metal slid over metal and linked together, seemingly forming metal and glass from no where and reparing itself, creating Cadge's first and original alt form; the Acura NSX. The Acura's horn tooted at the tank, _laughing_ at it, before driving around it and back into the dwindling human battle. There were still guns firing.

Billy slammed on the Acura's brake and slid in a curve around the shrinking battle. Metal gears with in the tires clacked against each other and sent out a massive EMP, shutting off any electronic with in a five yard radius and even jamming the guns. How that last bit occured one may only wonder. The Acura spun around on its wheels, hooting happily at the daring thing it had done.

The remaining humans exchanged looks, then dropped their weapons and scrambled onto the hoods of jeeps, cars, and some of the other semis to get out of the way. Their work was done. Spencer and his two assistants in the center, surviving tank remained put, seeing how easily their fellow tanks had been shut down. That, and Ms. Wild was revealing a _very_ scary side of herself by threatening what she would do to Spencer if he tried hurting Cadge one more time.

The pause in action was brief.

_**"Good work, Cadge,"**_ Karr called out in the engine-based language of Machine, drawing attention back to the monster robot car. _**"Now finish them!"**_

_**"Um, right, Karr,"**_ Cadge said, turning to face Karr. _**"You're gonna be mad at me, but… I've come to my senses."**_

_**"Meaning…?"**_

_**"YOU ARE CRAZIER THAN A BED OF BOLTS!! You know why humans are the dominant species of this planet? Because they don't loose. And trust me, they won't loose when it comes to fighting you."**_

_**"C-Cadge!"**_ Karr gasped. _**"What about Kitt betraying you and wanting to take you back to Masquerade? Or how everyone was going to imprison you for being you? What about the sentience of machines?"**_

_**"That day's coming Karr, trust me. With technology, it's only a matter of time before humans start abandoning their fleshling bodies for something more. Machines will rule someday...But not in the way you have planned. Face it, Karr; what you're planning is insane and impossible. Besides…"**_

In side the Acura, the seat belt tightened lovingly over Billy's chest.

_**"Not all humans are bad."**_

There was a long, quiet pause from Karr.

**"Michael,"** Karr ventured, switching to English. **"Do you agree with Cadge?"**

Michael sat in side of Karr, having understood the conversation by listening through the body controlling program. Now his inner turmoil was at full pitch. This was Michael's last chance; join Karr and help him in his insane scheme for machines to take over the world, or go back with Kitt and continue with the life he had built without Karr. He listened the pros and cons in his head, his mind working as quickly as it could.

Join Kitt and Cadge, pros: Good guy, good reputation, his friends, don't destroy the world.

Cons: Get his butt kicked on a regular bases, crappy Chinese food more often than not with no one to cook at the base, odd hours, and high chance of death in combat.

Join Karr, pros: Old friend, good times, more powerful, not as much as a dumb ass at times.

Cons: Karr's crazy, become a bad guy, loose his friends, loose Sarah.

Sarah…

Beautiful Sarah. Smart Sarah. Witty Sarah. Sarah that teased him when she had to apply yet another bandage to more wounds. Sarah, who spoke that technology mumbo-jumbo as she fixed Kitt. Sarah, who worried for him privately when he went on missions. Sarah the girl of his dreams. Sarah, the girl whose face invaded Michael's vision when ever some broad came too close to him in his mission. Sarah, the only woman he could ever love.

Sarah, who unwittingly helped Michael make a decision to right the wrong one he had made earlier.

He pulled his arms from the holographic controllers and moved the visor away, sitting back in his seat sadly as he stared out the small window in front of him. He was going to miss Karr… but he would miss Sarah more.

"Yes, I do, Karr," Michael said quietly.

Karr stiffened up and was as still as a statue for a moment. Then he moved, clenching his fists as his engine gunned low and deep in anger.

"I see," Karr growled. "Too bad; it does not matter."

Wires and cables leaped from the walls and pierced themselves into Michael, making him cry out as they entered his skin, wrapping around muscle and bone and holding immobile in an extremely painful embrace.

"You are _mine_, Michael!" Karr roared, folding down into his Mustang form.

His head lights were glowing golden yellow like cursed gold's glitter. His engine was roaring like an enraged demon, echoing down the silent, watchful city streets. People exchanged nervous looks and several took off running, some Masquerade troops and police men among them. Their instincts were helpfully telling them that, begging your pardon for the language, the shit was about to hit the fan on high power.

Then there were the idiots just dumb enough to stick around and watch.

"And I am _not_ letting anyone steal you again!" Karr declared, his voice choked slightly with emotion.

"Uh oh, I think we just opened the dam up," Billy said to Cadge.

"Let's see if we can stop the flood without drowning Michael," Cadge said, backing up to one of Masquerade Inc's semis. The two energizing cables from before jumped out and pierced themselves into the grille, refueling him. There was a beep-click as he contacted Kitt and entered his communication link with Zoe and Sarah.

"Kitt, where are you?"

"Approximately twenty yards directly behind you, Cadge," Kitt replied. His voice sounded like it was coming from right there with in the car. "It is good to have you back to normal."

"Yeah, as normal as I can get," Cadge chuckled. "Alright, Karr's going to bolt off the instant he sees and opening, so we'll hound him to just out side of the city where we can see about getting Michael out of him and to safety before we off line this sucker for good. You ready?"

"I will try," Kitt replied. "But most of my key systems are badly damaged from my fight with him from earlier. He is stronger, Cadge. You will have to do most of the fighting."

"Got ya. There he goes!"

Spotting an opening between two jeeps, Karr sped forward, slamming to the two jeeps apart as he drove on the sidewalk down the street.

"Let's go!" Billy yelled, driving after Karr.

"I will follow him from the side," Kitt said, backing up from his spot and turning around, following Karr on a parallel street. "Sarah, I am going to pick you up on my way."

"_Well you better stop, because you're coming right on me!"_ Sarah informed him.

Kitt spotted Sarah just in the nick of time and slammed on his brakes, opening his driver's door. Sarah ran out from the crowd on the sidewalk and jumped in. Kitt slammed the door shut and resumed his parallel chase with Karr, the whole stop, pick up, and go taking less than a minute.

Thus Karr ran through the city with a pained, captive Michael with in him, a Billy-driven Acura Cadge behind him, and a Sarah-driven Kitt on the next street over on his left. As they drove, Karr yelled at Cadge in Machine.

"_**I don't get it, Cadge! You want machines to be sentient, you were with me so completely before, you even almost killed for the cause!"**_ Karr exclaimed. _**"What has happened to change that?"**_

"_**I fixed myself, Karr!"**_ Cadge snapped. _**"I repaired the damages in my programming and upgraded myself and I regained my sanity. I realized that while humans are dick wads sometimes, they're still in right of owning this planet. Sure, they make a lot of mistakes, but they try fixing them, and that's better than nothing! Come on, Karr, pull over and let go of Michael; he doesn't belong to you."**_

"_**Yes he does!"**_ Karr declared, squeezing his grip on a barely-conscious Michael again. _**"We were bonded the moment I on-lined and saw him, we were bonded when we fought side-by-side, and we are bonded still, even long after his memories were lost and found again. Michael and I are to become one forever more!"**_

**_"Dude, what kind of nut job programmed you?"_**

"Billy, what are they saying?" Sarah asked through Kitt to Cadge and Billy. "I can hear their engines from clear over here!"

"They're speaking Machine, Sarah," Kitt stated. "I am analyzing their speech patterns, and I can make out that they are speaking of Michael and Cadge's betrayal to Karr."

"Can you speak Machine?" Sarah asked.

"Negative, Sarah, I lack the knowledge."

Karr and Cadge continued talking.

"_**You know, you are **__**insane**__**, right, Karr?" **_Cadge asked. _**"As comforting as the idea that you and your driver might be able to bond, it will never happen. Flesh and machine just can not fuse that way; it is either all flesh, or all metal."**_

"_**I am fusing with him now,"**_ Karr said with a smirk in his voice.

"_**STOP!"**_ Cadge cried out, speeding forward to ram Karr's back end. _**"You're going to kill him! Michael's body can't handle that kind of strain!"**_

"_**I'd rather have him **__**die**__** than loose him to some half-life like Kitt,"**_ Karr snarled.

Kitt now turned onto their road, joining the chase beside Cadge as they exited the city and sped through the suburbia to trailer town and back out to the desert.

"_**Kitt may be a half life," **_Cadge said. _**"And an idiot when it comes to things outside of his programming, but at least he's not **__**insane**__**."**_

"Excuse me," Kitt said. "I am right here."

Both other machines ignored him.

_**"Karr, release Michael before you kill him!"**_

_**"Make me!"**_ Karr snarled, speeding off of the main road and down a dirt one.

The three cars flew over the dirt, heading into some hills before finally coming to a large flat space of a cliff over looking the desert for as far the eye could see. Here, Karr stopped and sped around, standing in robot mode.

_**"If you want Michael,"**_ Karr growled, clenching one fist that glowed red from with in while the other turned into a laser gun. _**"You must fight for him."**_

Cadge turned into his ferocious, all-warrior Ferrari FXX form, sheathing and unsheathing his shredding wheels ferociously and shooting twin lasers from his small side mirror guns in the air for a warm up. He was ready.

"Remember, Kitt and Sarah," Billy warned. "Michael's in side that thing."

"We will damage his struts and remove his arms," Kitt suggested. "Rendering him helpless."

"Decapitating limbs Monty-Python style," Cadge said. "My favorite attack tactic."

Then the final battle began.


	23. Cars and Chaos

**Disclaimer: I do not own Knight Rider nor any attached characters; just Cadge and the story.**

**Chapter 23: Cars and Chaos**

"Did you see that!?" Spencer exclaimed as Dr. Gomez and Ms. Wild, jumped from the back of their semi. "We had _tanks_ and it didn't even scratch either of those robot types! Wow-we, that was awesome!"

"I fear for your future children," Ms. Wild groaned, covering his eyes with a hand.

"Start the jeep!" Dr. Gomez ordered, running towards one of the silvery blue jeeps. "We have to follow those cars before—"

But the driver of the jeep he was approaching didn't even touch the keys when the vehicle gunned to life. Gomez, Wild, and Spencer froze on the spot as one by one, the other jeeps and working vehicles came on, with or without drivers. The driver of the jeep they were approaching looked down at the dashboard dumbly, then looked at them in a classic questioning cartoon moment before the jeep suddenly sped off without the driver's control. Spencer's cell phone rang and he drew it out of his pocket and answered it without even taking his eyes of the seen.

"Spencer speaking, this better be important," he answered.

_"Spence, it's Zoe! There's—**shh**—a virus taking over the – waves being broadcasted from – a tower just – **click, click, click**, -- of town. __NORTH__ of town! **Beep, beep, beep**—coming alive—**blip, blip** – of there before and de-s-troy the tow-er b-fore – **wheeee!** -- the machines take over!"_

Then the phone let up such a god-awful screech that Spencer hung it up quickly.

"Guys," he said. "That was Zoe. Apparently, some sort of virus is causing all of this and we have to get to a radio tower north of town where it's being broadcasted from before we're all sent to hell by the Terminator and Co."

"Great, how do we do that when the machines have minds of their own?" Gomez groaned, watching as vehicles began driving around the streets. Some began chasing people and others ran right into stores. Spencer had to hold back a snicker when he saw a rather chunky man run away at amazingly fast speeds from an electronic scooter that looked like all it wanted was a little bit of love.

A beep sounded out behind them and they turned around.

Pulling up behind them was the silver-blue Nissan GT-R that Billy had come into town with and a bright red Dodge Viper SRT10. The head lights turned toward each other, then glowed brightly as they managed to inch closer and let their engines purr before looking back up at the humans. Their doors opened.

"Well," Gomez said awkwardly. "At least there are friendly cars. But why are they helping us stop their very source of life?"

"Does it matter? Will figure it out later. Let's go!" Wild exclaimed, jumping into the Viper.

"A Viper, eh?" Spencer asked, following Gomez to the Nissan. He winked and make a cha-click noise as he mimicked pointing a gun at the Nissan. "Nice choice, lady killer! Where'd you meet her?"

_"Spencer!!"_ Wild and Gomez yelled.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Spencer wailed, squeezing into the Nissan. "Jeez, let a man appreciate another man's taste in girls, will ya?"

Their passengers thus loaded up, the cars slammed their doors shut and sped off through the city, by passing the chaos on their way to the northern radio tower. Behind them, the Spencer's tank, the only on to survive Cadge's attack, perked its gun barrel up, turning it in the way they had gone, and began to roll after them.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kitt's grappling gun shot out, wrapping around one of Karr's leg struts and pulling on it as he circled Karr, trying to wrap the struts together to break them. Cadge fired at Karr's leg struts with his side-mirror-based lasers.

Karr stood firm and seized the hook's rope, yanking on it so that Kitt actually lost contact with the ground as he was pulled forward. Cadge darted forward in front of Kitt and one of his rear tires' super cutter spinners sliced through the metal cable, releasing Kitt from Karr.

Karr unwrapped the severed cabled from his leg struts as his red hand cooled and his laser gun hand turned back into a hand. He swung the grappling hook around over his head, gaining momentum before throwing it at Kitt. The curved hooks linked themselves on the space between Kitt's hood and the wind shield and he pulled on it, making Kitt flip over as he was yanked up and into the air.

Karr released the borrowed grappling hook, reaching back with a fist and punching Kitt square in the under carriage, making Kitt fly right back and land with his roof against the side of the mountain they were on. It was exactly like being punched in the stomach in mid-air with enough force to knock a human back into the wall. Kitt slid down the mountain wall, landing on all four wheels with a crunching thunk. He was badly scratched and dented and his repairs came slowly, as his nanobots were still exhausted from the earlier battle. But judging by the extreme outward angle his wheels had gained upon landing, he was out of the battle.

"Kitt!" Cadge exclaimed. "Kitt! Are you okay?"

Kitt's engine groaned in pain, shouting the last word, "Son of a _bitch!"_

Cadge's engine stalled in surprise. "Why, Kitt… are you… _mad_?"

"Yes, Cadge, yes I am. Thus far since midnight, I've been slammed against a wall, had my best friend kidnapped, had the metal kicked out of me, and this recent deveopment of being _sucker_ punched does not help. I am dented, bruised, broken, tired, mentally run ragged, and I want you to do something for me."

"What's that?"

"Do me a favor and kick the son-of-a-scrap-pile's rear bumper, will you?" Kitt growled.

"With pleasure," Cadge growled, turning to face Karr. His driver's door opened up and the driver's seat jumped, making Billy jump out.

"Billy; tend to Sarah and Kitt. I'll deal with Karr."

Before Billy could object, Cadge sped back into battle.

Karr spun the stolen grappling hook over his head and threw it at the charging Cadge. Cadge slammed on his brakes and turned. When the grappling hook landed just inches from his rear passenger-side wheel, his sharp spinner spurs whirred in a blur and sliced the line, severing the hook from its rope. Karr tossed away the now-useless metal rope as his right hand glowed red again from inner heaters and the left hand became a golden-ended laser gun.

_**"Come on, Karr,"**_ Cadge cooed in Machine, darting around the first two golden laser shots that were aimed for him. _**"There are better paths than this. Just let Michael go and listen to me explain them."**_

Cadge's smooth-talking seemed to spark an idea with in Karr, though.

_**"And I have better paths, too,"**_ Karr replied, electricity running up his red hand. _**"Just allow me to show you."**_

_**"That will only reprogram me,"**_ Cadge said, staring at the sentient energy. _**"I don't need to do another one of those sessions just now. Let go of Michael, Karr."**_

_**"Never,"**_ Karr replied, lowering his sparking hand and aiming his gun at Cadge.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Mean while, with in Karr, Michael hung in cruel void of pain and numbness, himself and Karr, prison and freedom. He felt pain, but was not numb enough to ignore it. He could feel freedom, but was held to tightly to seize it. But what was the worst thing of all was having his own mind, but feeling Karr's there, too, invading through the cables drilling into his skull and into his brain.

Karr was scared and mad. He was scared that he was going to loose Michael again. He was scared that he was going to loose and return to the godless purgatory that he had been born in and what he had been imprisoned in for the two times he had died. He was scared that he would loose all purpose in life, doomed to wander the roads without a purpose; something all machines needed.

But he was angry, and that anger was what made him fight Cadge. He was angry that Cadge, the perfect minion, had gained his senses and betrayed him. He was mad that Kitt wasn't dead yet. He was mad that _Michael_ was turning against him. This anger, in turn, he could not help but reflect in pain in Michael. But Karr had plans about fixing that; he was going to make Michael forget all about Kitt and his 'friends' and make him know only Karr. Once he did that, it would be only him and Michael, like it was _supposed _to be.

_Karr,_ Michael whimpered with in his head. _Please, let me go, this hurts, oh god, this hurts worse than the time they erased my memory…_

Imagine the horror that birthed in Michael's stomach when Karr responded without breaking pace with the battle going on outside _in his head_.

_I know, Michael, but it will be over soon. Soon, you and I will become on and you'll never feel pain again._

Michael felt the cold masculine machine's mental presence stroke his own mind and a scream of terror managed to break from his throat. The scream became double-fold as four cables slid into his back, sliding in among the muscles just centimeters from his spine and making his entire back screech in agony.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Outside, Billy had Sarah in the dirt beside Kitt. She had a small head wound, but was other wise undamaged. They both looked up when they thought they heard something with in Karr, then exchanged looks. Michael's time was running out.

"How--?" Sarah began to ask.

"I got an idea," Billy said, running over to Kitt's trunk. "Kitt, pop your trunk."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Wild's party, mean while, found that some machines rather liked their new-found freedom and were perfectly prepared to attempt running the Viper and Nissan off the road once they sensed what their passengers' intentions were. How exactly this happened they were unsure of. Wild and Gomez in their seperate cars each came to the same conclusion that perhaps Spencer's cell phone had heard about their intentions while Zoe was telling him about the tower and had spread the word. Now a small troop of driverless vehicles was chasing after them, trying to out pace the Niassan and Viper and ram them off the road. A snow plow was among them.

"What the hell is a snow plow doing here!?" Spencer exclaimed, looking over his shoulder at the enemy vehicles. "It's _Nevada_ for Christ's sake."

"Shut up, we're coming up on the tower!" Gomez exclaimed, pointing at the tower of black metal.

But standing in their way was a dark blue 1968 Chrysler Imperial truck; the type the army used.

In other words, a mother-jacking big-ass, bad ass truck.

The Nissan and Viper skidded to a halt, honking in fear when the truck let loose an enormous, angry roar. A white Ford truck with thunder-thigh rear tire covers and a black Mac black truck came on either side of it, also roaring their fury and defiance at the two. The pursuing cars skidded to a stop, realizing that the giants of trucks had them covered in the way of defending the life-giving tower.

"Oh, that is _so_ not good," Spencer squeaked.

The Viper started backing away slowly, its engine whimpering in fear, but Wild placed both hands on the steering wheel and stepped on the brake.

"No," she ordered. She began turning the steering wheel all the way to the left.

"Come on, girl," she cooed. "I know they're bigger and meaner, but we have to try. We have to be brave, girl. Can you do that for me, girl? Can you be brave?"

Upon reaching the extent of turning left, she began to turn the wheel right. It served its purpose and calming the Viper, making its engine cease its whimpering fear. By the time she straightened the wheel, the Viper beeped twice in agreement and Wild smiled.

In the other car, Spencer and Gomez watched Wild.

_"What_ is she _doing_?" Gomez asked from the driver's seat.

"That's how she calmed Cadge down before big shows, do it to this car!" Spencer said excitedly. "Go on; turn the wheel and talk baby talk!"

"Talk baby--?" Gomez stuttered. "I am _not_ talking baby talk to a car, it's a Nissan GTR; a racing machine, not some mini van!"

"Look, if you don't do it, this Nissan will sit right here and let the trucks roll all over it, being their bitch and used oil bin and—WOHA!"

Spencer was forced to shut up as the Nissan roared its engine at the statement about being the truck's oil bin and it darted forward, speeding around to the enemy trucks' right as the Viper sped around to their left.

"That did it!" Gomez exclaimed, fumbling with the driver's seat belt and buckling it over himself.

"Aw yeah, it sure did," Spencer agreed, buckling himself in calmly as the Viper and Nissan passed each other and came to the front of the trucks, switching their original spots and coming to face the trucks again.

"Well, let's see how long we last," Spencer said, linking his fingers on his stomach as he sat back in his seat easily. Looking at him, one would think he had done this for years.

Dr. Gomez pushed himself back against his seat as his knuckles became white clutching the arm rests.

In the Viper, Wild grinned an uncharacteristic devil's grin as she gripped the Viper's steering wheel.

"Let's do this," she hissed.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thus the battles went into full swing. Cadge and Karr danced around and around each other. Cadge attempting to remove Karr's limbs while Karr attempted to remove Cadge's _life_. Billy and Sarah worked on some sort of contraption over by Kitt to the side, temporarily forgotten. Spencer and Gomez rode in their Nissan as Wild went wild in the Viper to drive around and around their massive truck opponents, trying to make them crash or flip or do _something_ without being killed themselves. Desert dirt flew, machine screeched and clattered when ever it contacted, and engines roaring like the technology-created beasts of a futuristic tomorrow that did not seem too far off now.

In Watson City and surrounding townships, people ran from their cars and other mobile electronics as immobile electronics went hay wire. Kitchen appliance turned on and off, TV's turned on to channels and refused to change aside, or even flashed seizure-inducing colors at viewers. Someone got the bright idea to _turn off the city's power grid_ and that took out a majority of appliances, although it left things like cell phones and the vehicles still alive.

The National Guard was called in, but their jeeps and trucks swerved and flung their drivers and passengers aside to go do as they wished upon entering the living virus's broadcasting field. Media people attempted to enter in their helicopters, but upon entering the altered radio tower's signal, they gained their own mind and flew where they pleased. A couple even flew low and swung around, knocking their humans out of themselves before flying off; at least they didn't do so from a deadly height. Northern Nevada was in all-out chaos.

Then Karr got the upper hand of his battle.

**AN: My family has 1968 Chrysler Imperial truck that my dad bought off the army and fixed up. They are seriously bad ass and big.**


	24. End Game

**Disclaimer: I own Cadge and the story, not the total awesomness of Knight Rider or any attached characters.**

**Chapter 24**

Karr's red-hot hand slammed sown on Cadge's hood, pinning him where he was as his gauntlet burned over the original striking cobra brand. Cadge's engine howl in an inhumane scream of pain as his tires all spun and kicked up dirt. His rear right and front left tires spurs had lost their spokes trying to saw off Karr's leg struts and deep gouges and scratches covered him. His windshield was cracked and his left side windows were shattered. He was in bad shape, and having a _red hot gauntlet burn down into his hood was not helping._

"Cadge!" Billy yelled, jumping to his feet.

"Billy, we're almost done, help me!" Sarah beckoned, pulling him back down to work on their weapon.

_**"You should have stayed with me, Cadge,"**_ Karr growled, raising his laser hand up to aim at the helpless Ferrari FXX. _**"You should have stayed being Nasam."**_

"Hey, tin man!" Billy yelled.

Karr looked up in time to see Kitt launch some odd, crude mechanical spear from where his grappling hook had been. The six-foot device pierced right through Karr's shoulders, passing inches above Michael's head with in him. There was a moment of silence except for the hiss of burning metal and the growl of active engines. Karr beeped in confusion as he removed his hand from Cadge's hood and gripped the pointed end of the spear. He tugged a little, then pulled the entire spear out of himself with a sickening crunch.

Inside, much of the contraption tied to the crude spear via wires slid off of the spear and fell to the bottom of Karr's chest compartment. He didn't seem to notice and turned the spear over in his hand, examining it. It appeared to be made of some sort of emergency radio antennae, spiked with some ripped off metal from Kitt's damaged body, tied to it with wires. The effect was like a human had tied a sharp human tooth to a wooden spear with human hair.

Karr hefted the spear in his hand as he looked over at Billy and Sarah. The looks on their face showed that their plan had failed and they were screwed. Karr would have smirked if he could before he threw the spear directly at Billy.

"Tin man _this,_ boy," he growled.

_"No!"_ Cadge yelled, speeding forward.

Billy closed his eyes, prepared to feel metal pierce him. But instead, large metal bumped into him, knocking him off his feet and into Kitt as he heard a metallic thunk. He opened his eyes and was horrified to see the spear piercing the direct center of Cadge's hood at an extreme angle.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"Oh we are _so_ screwed," Gomez moaned as his and Spencer's Nissan ride just barely backed away from the Chrysler truck's massive tires.

"You can say that again," Spencer yawned, apprently not _really_ agreeing.

"Oh we are _so_ screwed!" Gomez wailed.

"I was only kidding," Spencer sighed, rolling his eyes.

"We are about to become metal spagettie and you're not scared? What is wrong with you?" Gomez demanded.

"Well, I'm pretty confident that I lived a good life. I'll probably be reincarnated as a bear. Ah, yes, a bear living in the mountains with massive paws, free to maw all the pesky, fat, American tourists that I want..."

"Wait, you're Buddhist?"

"Yes. Is there a problem?"

"I thought Buddhists were all, like, peace to the earth and stuff like that."

"Those are hippies."

"For some reason, I can't get that bear comment out of my head and now all I want is to either kill you or jump out screaming--"

There was a crash of metal and the Viper emitted a girl-like engine scream. The Nissan's engine gunned fearfully as it shot over to where the red sports car had been knocked away by the Ford truck. The poor Viper's passenger side was severely dented and the car remained where it had been smashed, stalled and scared. Peeking into the driver's side window, they saw that Ms. Wild was a little shaken, but not stirred.

Sorry, bad joke.

The Niassan nudged the Viper gently, its engine and lights flickering out some fearful message. The Viper responded weakly, confirming its ability to live. But the Nissan was angry now. It's doors opened and it gunned its engine as its belts undid themselves from around Spencer and Gomez.

"What--?" Gomez began to ask.

"He's asking us to get out, so get out," Spencer said, positioning himself and kicking Gomez out the door.

Once Spencer was out of the car and Gomez was picking himself off the ground, the Nissan slammed its doors shut and sped backwards, gunning its engine loudly and ferousiously. The opposing trucks' horns honked in laughter, amused by the Nissan's challenge, but stalled when they saw something behind the Nissan. Gomez and Spencer's face fell when they saw what was behind the Nissan as well and everyone began to back away slowly. The Viper's head lights glowed brightly in a car's wide-eyed stare. The Nissan purrd in confusion, then drove forward and made a U-turn to see what was behind it.

Then it stalled.

Spencer's tank had caught up and was now parked, seemingly staring at all the trucks-vs-cars fight. After a long moment, a growling buzz came from Spencer's phone. Spencer took it out of his pocket and stared at it as it vibrated a couple times, growling and buzzing, before it began to ring normally. After a couple rings, he hesitantly opened it up and answered the call.

"Hello?" he asked.

_"Looks like yer havin' a right spot o' trouble der," _a male, heavy Texan country drawl said on the other side. Something was off about it, something clicking or hard-edged...

"Um y-yeah," Spencer said, looking at Gomez in confusion. "Um, we need to shut down the radio tower because--"

_"Because all da machines have gone plum-dumb nuts-o, yeah, so I've heard. I should I know; I'm onea 'em."_

Spencer looked at the tank.

_"I know what yer thinkin' and dat's right. I'm a gonna help ya, too, with dat mission 'cause I like ya. Don't ask me how, it's too weird for a human to understand. Besides, it looks like dem trucks der are bein' push overs and bullies with these itty bitty car types..."_

The tank rolled forward.

_"And I ain't never liked push overs and bullies."_

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Sarah was sitting on the ground, staring directly into Ferrari Cadge's grille "face". Shocked awe turned into horror when oil began to seep from Cadge's hood from where the crude spear had pierced Cadge's hood. Cadge's engine stuttered and stalled. Inside, the screen on the dashboard dimmed into darkness. No more computer hum could be heard with in him.

"CADGE!" she screamed, jumping to her feet.

"He got the traitor's death," Karr growled, raising his gun to aim at the humans. "Now it is time for you to die a dog's death—"

But what ever dramatic speech Karr had prepared was silenced when the device stuck in him from the spear activated, emitting waves of electricity. His back arched as he mechanically squealed in pain. The cables holding Michael loosened and several retreated, curling up in pain. It did not kill him, but it stalled him, at least. Just as the device spent up its energy, there was charging hum announced itself with in Cadge.

Everyone turned and watched in awe as Cadge reverted to Acura form, then revealed his final and most extraordinary form.

The spoiler folded into itself. The flat rectangular lights of a wide-eyed, over-energetic fool became long and narrow with deep mirror-walled interiors. The indented front grille gap became covered with some sort of black screen while all sharp corners disappeared except in the exterior contour lines. The open air vents on the hood sealed themselves up. The angle between windshield and hood became perfectly smooth with only the separating of crystal-clear glass and obsidian metal marking the difference between the two. The side mirrors grew slightly and made a perfect right angle from the body. The car seemed to grow a little. The spear in the hood shivered and sank into the hood, seeming to fuel the repairs that over took the car.

Dents popped out, glass grew up with a scratching, skittering noise over their gaps. Cracks in the glass shrank, making it flawless. The damaged spokes of the sharp spinners sprouted new spikes that flexed themselves in a testing way. The ruined cobra and the cruel hand imprints from Karr's smelting hand filled in with color and paint and were smoothed over with light hissing noises.

Finally, to top it all off, the color changed, starting from the center of the front of the grill and spreading on back to the hood, along its sides and roof, and finishing up in the back. It turned scratched black with orange side stripes into deep, dark, almost black, navy blue with arcane-looking gold ragged design on its roof and making a point on its hood, surrounding the head lights in blue and giving it the appearance of a helmet.

The car had become a Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster.

The head lights flared to life, blinking several times into wakefulness as the engine turned on with a quiet purr, denying the dramatic battle roar of a warrior. For some reason, this terrified Karr and made him back away as this new Cadge turned on him. Cadge approached Karr and Karr retreated.

"C-Cadge?" Karr asked, raising his red-hot hand and laser gun hand in defense. "W-What--?"

"An emergency mode, Karr," the Lamborghini purred in a strange, airy, electronic voice. "An emergency mode."

Then Cadge sped forward, turning his driver's side on Karr as he got right up against the front wheels of the robot monster. The wheel spurs on that side extended and spun crazily, sending sparks as they finally managed to slice through Karr's front leg struts. Karr cried out in surprise as he over balanced and fell on top of Cadge. Cadge's side mirrors tilted up and let out a steady stream of pale blue laser light, burning a hole open in Karr's chest. Karr pushed himself up, bracing his red-hot hand on Cadge's trunk area and his laser-gun hand on his hood. He left behind the front of his chest, leaving a gapping hole in his chest. In side and unconscious Michael hung in a forest of wires and cables.

Cadge's lasers shot several quick bursts into Karr's chest like the quick guns of an old Western hero. Michael was freed from his bonds, even though many cables and wires still hung to him from his skin. He sank to the floor and rolled out of Karr. Before Karr could catch him, a brave Sarah and Billy ran in, picked Michael up by his arms and legs, and ran to the side. Karr watched them go for a second, then saw Cadge's lasers aimed at what was left of his chest.

Karr saw where his laser gun was, on top of Cadges hood, and he released a huge fiery ball of laser into Cadge. Cadge's lasers let off one shot and he fell silent and still. Unfortunetly, it was not a fatal shot.

Karr reeled back, crying out in pain. He collapsed into his Mustang form. A large section of his hood was gone, exposing the engine beneath like a skinless human exposing their guts, and it took much effort on his part to get his damaged front wheels to spin.

"I will be back for Michael some day," he snarled.

With that promise and threat, Karr spun around and drove off, slow at first, but gaining speed as he sped away from them.

"He's still alive," Billy diagnosed, holding his fingers to Michael's neck. "But we need him to get to a hospital fast. Kitt--?"

"You'll have to drive me," Kitt groaned. "But what about Cadge?"

They turned to Cadge, but he had no reaction.

There was an enormous hole were his engine had been.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Billy sat in a chair in front of FLAG's computer station a week and a half later. Sarah and Kitt were visiting Michael at the hospital. Spencer and Wild were at Spencer's mansion, resting up after their adventure. Zoe was at the effected radio tower, ensuring that all traces of Karr's sentient-making program was gone for good. Where ever Cadge had shot him may not have killed Karr, but it had at least stopped the tower's signal to a point. Any thing with in a twenty-five yard radius had remained sentient, but Zoe had managed to fix that. Spencer, Gomez, and Wild had been disappointed about loosing their new Nissan and Viper friends (and Spencer had _cried_ when their nameless Texan tank friend shut down), but sacrifices had to be made. Gomez was trying to bring their sentience back; he claimed that it was a simple matter of re-activating the sentience virus's imprint on their programming. Why in the hell he would do that, most people didn't know. One could say it was for scientific practices. Another would say that he just wanted to have a sentient machine friend...

Others would say that Spencer would kill him if he didn't make them sentient again to show the humans' gratitude for their help.

The media had had a field day with the entire incident, but Billy wasn't paying attention to that. Now all he was doing was staring at Cadge. His engine had been replaced, as well as his damaged hood, curtsey of Masquerade Inc. when they realized that Cadge was a good guy. But as for his computer… it was hopelessly incinerated and Billy was having a hard time dealing with that.

Cadge had been his best friend. They had been partners in the end. Billy could see why Michael had been so torn up about being forced to choose between Karr and Kitt; that special bond he formed with the machine was just too amazing to break mercilessly. Now that bond had been broken between Billy and Cadge and Billy wasn't sure if he could ever be the same again.

The doors hissed open and Zoe entered. She dumped her backpack of computer equipment on the floor and stretched, groaning, before grabbing a water bottle from the mini fridge.

"You wouldn't realize how _hot_ it is out there!" she exclaimed. "And with all the media men running around… whew, what a day."

When she got no answer, she looked at Billy, then followed his emotionless stare towards the shell of Cadge. Her perky personality failed her and she looked down on the floor awkwardly. Remembering something, she set the water bottle down and presented it to Billy.

"Hey, Billy, look what I got; the special edition expansion of online Star Trek," she said, grinning as she waved the CD case in front of Billy's face.

Billy did not even twitch.

Zoe sighed and tossed the CD down on the computer desk.

"Billy not liking internet games; this is going to be an awful few weeks," Zoe muttered. "I haven't seen him less enthusiastic about internet games sense we had to scour the internet for remains of Kitt when his computer was taken away to resurrect Karr... Oh! Sorry! I didn't mean--!"

But rather than insult Billy with the mention of his best friend's murderer, Billy blinked as the light came back to his eyes. He turned his head, fixing his eyes on Zoe as he sat up straighter in his chair.

"What did you say? About Kitt and internet?" Billy asked.

"Well," Zoe said uneasily. "I was remembering how sick of internet games you were after we had to look through the internet for Kitt. Remember, when Alex Torres took his computer to put into Karr, Kitt put parts of himself all over the internet to save himself—"

_"KITT!"_ Billy bellowed, leaping to his feet.

Kitt answered the summons immedieatly, his voice speaking through the computers.

_"Thank goodness you are speaking, Billy,"_ Kitt said. _"I was worried that you had with drawn into a state of suicidal depression—"_

"Did you tell Cadge about how you put yourself all over the internet when your computer was taken out for Karr the first time?" Billy asked. "_Did you??_"

_"Yes,"_ Kitt replied slowly, obviously confused. _"What--?"_

"Great! Talk to you later," Billy said excitedly as he tapped at the key board.

An instant later, Dr. Gomez appeared on screen, looking down right confused.

_"Billy,"_ he said. _"You contacted me with the emergency number, what—"_

"Do you have an empty version of the computer that was in Cadge?" Billy asked.

_"Um, yes, we go through several every month. They have a nasty habit of exploding. What--?"_

"Bring one over; _now_," Billy ordered before he cut off the link.

"What--?" Zoe began to ask.

But for the third time Billy cut off that question.

"Start looking for any signs of Cadge on the internet _now_," Billy ordered her, accessing the World Wide Web on three different computers.

"What—"

"Are you looking for?" Billy finished. "We're looking for pieces of Cadge, just like we did with Kitt; tiny bits of him in the corner of the screen, weird ads that have no business being here, odd articles. Look! There's a bit now!"

Sure enough, when he Googled "Cadge", there were three links; _Acura NSX Cade, Ferrari FXX Cadge, Cadge says "HIIIIIIIIII!!!"_

Billy clicked on each of the links and a window popped up declaring that he was about to download an unknown file, was he sure? Billy eagerly clicked yes and after a short load window, another alert window popped up.

**You have downloaded 6 % of Cadge's Mind File.**

Zoe's eyes widened as she dropped her jaw. Then she spun around and sat down hard in her chair, also accessing the abused source of mass information and beginning the scavenger hunt for Cadge. She paused and stared at Billy.

"Twenty bucks says I find more Cadge bits than you."

"You're on."


	25. Fin

**Disclaimer: Final time, folks! Sing it with me: I do not own Knight Rider or any of its material, just Cadge adn the story.**

**Chapter 25:Fin**

The first thing Michael was aware of was that he ached everywhere. He hadn't remembered feeling this bad physically sense his first day of boot camp back when he was fresh out of high school. Either that, or back when he had to face the Asian Mafia in hand-to-hand-combat in Arkansas a few months back. Man, those guys were good…

Then he realized that some one was holding his hand and opened his eyes. There she was; her long brown hair was in a messy pony tail, unkempt and wild. She was wearing a floral-patterned tank top with blue jeans and black and whites-stripped flip flops; what state had she been in to completely forget the meaning of matching? Her blue-grey eyes were blood shot from sleeplessness and were looking at him worry when he woke up. Now they brightened up and a relieved sigh broke past her lips.

"Michael…" she whispered.

But all the memories of the past few days, from being hit on the head, to his near fall from grace with Karr, to the battle and forced fusing, flashed through Michael's mind. It reminded him how quickly his life could be cut short, or changed for the worst forever, so he did the only thing he had wanted to do ever since he was first separated from Sarah on the night of the get-together at Spencer's mansion.

He sat up and kissed Sarah.

A doctor came in, looking over a clip board with Michael's files on it, but did a 360 right back out of the room when he saw the sweethearts kissing.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kitt sat in the massive hospital parking lot late that night. The black pavement around him had emptied of other cars as people had gone home, the visiting hours done for, and it was actually somewhat creepy. But Sarah, for some reason, was still visiting Michael. Kitt was concerned. Shouldn't she had left hours ago? He hadn't detected any threats approaching the building, and detected none now. But none the less, he kept feeling like someone was watching him. He contacted her via her ear wig.

"Sarah, the visiting hours are over, are we going home soon?"

Much to his surprise, Sarah's _and_ Michael's panting voices yelled back at him, _"Shut up!"_

Then a small clack signaled that they had discarded their ear wigs. After a moment, Kitt settled down on his wheels. He would have had a small smile on his face if he were human when he realized what the two were probably doing.

Kitt perked up when he heard an approaching engine, but made himself sit still. It couldn't be Cadge. Cadge was dead.

A tragic thing, really; Cadge had taught Kitt that it was okay to have bad feelings. He just needed to control them. Kitt was going to miss him; his endless hours of talking about everything and nothing, his ability to copy cat everything he saw, and his spooky power to make machines do as he wished once in a while. Kitt guessed that he would especially miss how Cadge spoke Machine all the time. It was just entertaining and fascinating to see Cadge's lights flash and hear his engine growl as he spoke in a way that was nothing human and yet, some how, understandable.

Wait, was it Cadge's ghost? Logically, Cadge wouldn't be a ghost because he had no soul, just a programmed computer. But Michael had said that you gain a soul when you become sentient. Uh oh, what happened if Cadge's ghost came back to haunt Kitt for not saving him? And ghost-Cadge would come up behind him, all smokey and misty, and run his side along Kitt's as he moaned for Kitt to save him and give him his body back and he would say--

_"Hi, Kitt!_" a Porsche yelled as loud as he could, appearing beside Kitt.

Kitt's turbo boost activated as his horn honked in surprise and his engine screamed, resulting with him jumping a full three feet in the air before landing with a crash. It would have hurt if he had sensors, but he didn't. So he turned on Cadge, his windshield wipers whipping across his windshield and all his lights blazing in shock.

"Cadge!?" Kitt yelled, dropping his calm exterior in all-out surprise. "But I thought you were—"

"Dead?" the Porsche suggested, driving backwards around and around Kitt. "I was, but at the last minute, I remembered your story about how you saved yourself when Alex Torres took your programming for Karr…"

"And you scattered yourself through out the internet," Kitt finished, realizing the plan. He remembered back to when Billy had called him earlier, asking him if he had told Cadge the same story. It mad sense now. "That was very clever of you, and clever of Billy for him to figure it out."

"Zoe inspired him, now come on! Let's go shred some rubber!"

Cadge sped away, but stopped when Kitt spoke, his rear brake lights glowing to show that he was looking back.

"Cadge…" Kitt said. Then, after a moment of concentration, his engine hummed strangely as his upper, smaller head lights flickered and his windshield wipers rose slightly before falling.

He had said, _**"Welcome back, Cadge," **_in Machine.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"So, you originally invented Cadge as a prototype for unmanned war machinery?" Michael asked.

"Yes," a nervous Gomez replied from behind his office desk.

Michael was in Gomez's office, having barged in while Gomez was going over notes, and straightening up the story around Cadge, as he had not been around to hear most of it.

"But Cadge became sentient when you were only beginning working on his actual battle mode and he took off because what you thought were just tests were actually torture sessions for him?" Michael went on.

"Yes."

"And this is why Cadge had different personalities with different alt modes; for different battle programs?"

"Yes."

"And because of these incomplete programs, Cadge went psycho with Karr when Karr accidentally turned on his battle mode?"

"Yes."

"But when Cadge had a near brush with completely crashing his computer, he put himself in emergency shut down and managed to fix and reprogram himself to repair the damage that had been caused while running on incomplete alt-modes. This reprogramming was what created the Lamborghini-alt mode, extended his on-board weapons capability to all modes, and made him more intelligent and mature, right?"

"Not mature, but everything else, yes."

"And from what I've been hearing, Cadge is officially with FLAG now, living with Ms. Rebecca Wild and Mr. Spencer at Spencer's place when not on base—"

"And we're keeping Spencer from going to the press by bribing him with a _tank_," Gomez interjected, flinching noticeably. "That man's scary…"

"And Masquerade can't touch a thing on Cadge," Michael finished.

"Not that we want to. You wouldn't believe what an _ear chewing_ we got when the FBI, CIA, NSA, and a whole alphabet soup of other agencies came down on us for what happened in Watson City. Well, I suppose we should just be grateful that no one died. _That's_ a miracle and evidence that Baby Jesus loves us, in my opinnion. Needless to say, some place called Field Start Incorporated is getting all our funding for the next twenty years. What's with the smirk look?"

"Nothing, I just helped them out a few months back. One more question."

"Yes?"

"Why the hell didn't you put something American in that damn car?"

"It just never happened. And besides," Gomez said, sitting back in his seat with a small smile. "Isn't his immature stupidity masking determination to keep living American enough?"

Michael chuckled in agrement and stared at all the papers on Gomez's desk. Flow charts, time tables, graphs, lists, entire pages of printed out computer code, concept sketches, and an all number of other things covered the sheets and sheets of white paper. Somewhere, there was an expanse of flat land where trees used to be, that was how much paper was there. Michael picked up a piece of paper that caught his eye and read it:

**Notes:**_ Paint jobs actually reflect rank on cars._

_Thick stripe along top center of car:__ dominant alpha_

_Thin stripe along top center of car:__ weak alpha_

_Thin stripe along top extreme left or right of car, almost touching/on top of headlight: __Independent warrior, wild_

_Thick stripe along both sides of car:__ Strong second-in-command/high ranking car_

_Thin stripe along both sides of car__: Weak second-in-command/high ranking car_

_Double stripes along top center of car:__ Dominant loner_

_One stripe down either side of car:__ Strong member of small force_

_Multiple thin stripes/unparallel stripes along either/both sides of car:__ Insane (for a reason!!)_

_Multiple thin stripes/unparallel stripes along top center of car:__ Just plain old ugly_

"What's all this?" Michael asked.

"Notes for the original car," Gomez replied, shuffling some papers together.

"Are you going to try remaking Cadge?"

"Oh, Cadge isn't the original car."

Michael looked up and stared at Gomez.

"Tare others out there, but don't worry; we're 87 % sure that they're all stable." Gomez assured.

. . .

"Others?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

_"Hey-ya, everyone, this is Bob "Chill" Crackers coming at ya live from over Watson City. A week ago, some douche bags in bling-bling war machinery were up in here, blasting up stuff and making everyone more wild than a rabid dog in a fighting ring. There was some sort of show down with some transforming robot, we know that. Then it was all like Transformers or Terminator or Stephan King's __Trucks__ up in here; we had cars going all crazy all over the human's stuff and we were just sca-__rewed! __Fortunetly, not too many people died. Probably because people got in contact with their ancestrial monkey side and scrambled up street poles. Or, and I'm giving a shout out to my non-evolution believers here, yo guardian angels picked you up by the back of yo droopy pants and hauled yo saggy butt up to a third floor balcony. Hey, I saw it happen on Main Street, but dang, man, who ever the dude was with the bat wings and horns? Kinda over doing it, don't ya think? Well, long story short, we were going to hell in a gift basket and there weren't any women or alcoholic drinks to pass the time, but we had the biscuits to prove it._

_"Then it all just stopped. Now, we all know the rumors and the stories; some say its aliens, others say it's some ticked off divine dude on high, and still others say that it was just some freak accident. And, of course, the old dudes are pointing to the communist and young nerds are pointing to our own government. Personally, I thought some kid playing a video game somewhere pressed in the wrong cheat code. Well, I got some inside info from my man, Cadge, who was there for he whole thing._

_"See, the Transformer dude the bling-bling Masquerade Inc. dudes were fighting was a nut case of a bad guy called Karr—and that's K-A-R-R-- who wanted machines to take over the world. He was broadcasting some sort of sentience-giving virus from a radio tower north of Watson City. Then my man, Cadge, and his buddy, Kitt the sentient Mustang, came along and absolutely whipped Karr's butt! But Karr's still out there, man, so if you see a Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang, silver with a thick black stripe along the top and a gold light grille on the front, make sure to turn yo butt __around__ and __run__, 'cause that guy's whacked, yo. And if you got such a silver Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang; scrap it or change it! But don't worry; Cadge and Kitt and their human homies at the Federation for Law and Government got yo back._

_"Now, speaking of machines, it gets lonely flying around by my self over the cities and all that, and I'm looking for a special lady to ride with me. Uh, let's see my profile; I'm good with kids. I just love those bouncy little buggers, love flying by the park all the time to see what kind of trouble they get into. My body is that of your standard news helicopter, and I keep fit by frequently flying around what ever canyons I find. I'm not expensive, seeing as how I just land on abandoned roof tops when I need a nap, and I'm solar powered! So, yeah, I'm __very__ eco-friendly. I also got some grappling hook action and anti-bullet armor thing going on, so I'm strong and protective. Oh! And ice cannons, definetly can't forget the ice cannons! I can be the ice machine at the party and the DJ and the entertainment ride! That's a two-thousand buck deal in one 'copter, man! Likes and Dislikes: I enjoy flying over cities at night and watching the sun set, and I don't like it when people lie._

_"Family? Let's see, um, a couple scientists whipped me up one drunken Easter night in some labs, does that count?_

"_So, if any chick out there dig a super advanced sentient helicopter call me up, you know how__."_

**Author's Note: Ta daa! Boy, that was fun. Bet you didn't expect that last part, huh? :D Welp, that's the end of that. If you want a sequeal, start PMing ideas, I'll see if I can get inspired and I'll make sure people know you helped. Leave reviews! ^_^**


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